By Day By Night
Story by Katherine Camarata
Stephen Robison
What do a zombie baby doll, stringed instruments, strikingly stylish attire and aromatic tea served in carefully crafted mugs all share in common? They all find themselves a home in the office of ceramics professor, interim chair of art and design and singer songwriter Stephen Robison, tucked neatly away in the warm, subtle glow of their first floor Randall Hall nook.
Robison wears many literal and metaphoric hats in our community, throwing pots by day and playing shows at wine bars and breweries by the time the evening strikes. As a professor and lover of imparting their craft upon youthful minds being molded, Robison believes in the power of nurture as a critical force to the natural artistic gifts we all possess.
Robison states, “I think children always have that drive to create, and it's part of their fun and play and living, doing some drawings or drawing in the mud or making things out of mud. And I think that we all have it. I don't believe in talent. I believe that you have that desire to create, whether it be dance or theater, music, art, visually, whatever it is. We have it as children and either foster it or don't.“
Robison continues, “It's the nature versus nurture argument that I'm throwing out there. As a professor, of course I have to believe in nurturing. That's my main ultimate goal, is to try and help people grow and realize that they all have potential for growth. They might not all become great artists, and I don't really care if they do. I hope that some of them get addicted to that desire that they had as a child, that they bring it back. We all had it.“
Robison explains the intimacy and youthful qualities of working with clay as their primary medium, recounting how creation and music improve their mentality.
“As a child, I always had that and I still have that desire. I have an addiction to having to play music, having to, first and foremost, get my hands in that clay,“ Robison says. “Out of all the media, I feel like clay is obviously the most moldable. You can manipulate it any way you want. You can make it look like leather. You can make it look like wood. You can make it look like clay, so it has its own intrinsic values.“
Robison shares their personal reasons for creating art. “Why I create is I think out of a need to, and it's not really saying it's a mental health issue, that I have to have that for my mental health, but I'm sure it keeps me positive. I'm sure that when I'm creating things, that I have a better outlook on life in general, because I'm hopefully adding something to the world that might make it a little better.“
Robison explains why hand crafted, artisan goods may be more fulfilling to engage with than a cheaply manufactured item that may end up in a landfill.
“A cup, a simple cup, can go up to someone's lip, can fit in someone's hand, can nurture you. Not just in what is in the cup, but that the cup itself is going to give you an experience that's going to add to your daily life,“ Robison says. “Unlike a Solo cup, unlike some commercially made thing by Walmart for four dollars, because that's handmade. I think about the hand, and so the actual humanity of what I put into it. I think about ergonomics, how it feels. I think about physical balance… When I touch my lip with that, that is something that is an intimate quality to an object that people forget.“
Robison draws upon similarities between producing a piece of clay art and performing a song on stage with one of their booking bands, Bitterbrush, Chronomids or Chukar Pluckers, who recently played live local shows at Iron Horse Brewery, Gard Vintners and PUNCH Gallery.
Robison muses, “there's definitely a rhythm in the process of making things with clay. The potter's wheel definitely has this rhythm. There's a speed to the spin, like a Sufi practitioner who's a Whirling Dervish. There's something to centering oneself.“
Robison continues to juxtapose various elements of clay and music, stating, “You're going to make mistakes. That might be good. We learn from our mistakes, or have you ever heard in music, you repeat a mistake and then people think you did it intentionally? But sometimes a mistake is a beautiful thing, because it teaches you something, so there's the rhythm and those mistakes that occur as you are learning and performing … then there's a slight rhythm to this ceramic piece that's very subdued, but you can see the flow going up. It's not static,“ Robison says, indicating a photo of a piece of ceramic artwork.
“There's kind of a rhythm from the form to the neck to the form to the knob. There's so many elements in this piece from China, it's like they've always thought about that balance of form, and the utility of this knob has to be a certain shape. So in terms of an object that you make, there are elements kind of similar to rhythm, where there might be a chorus in there, and maybe the chorus is something we all remember from a song, and maybe the chorus on a piece might be the focal point or the main contributor to the content of the piece. So, I think there's a parallel there.“
As an artist, Robison explains the dilemma of striving to deliver originality in a world where every concept seems to already exist.
“There's a danger zone where we are all conglomerations of appropriation, no matter what you say, there's nothing really original,“ Robison states. “It's just your take on it. And then you take and drive that thought down the road. That's kind of how I feel about the growth of things, or the spreading of good words by you utilizing it in your way, and that's where maybe originality lies. It's where you take it. There's a certain flow to the way we sing, dance, create objects. There's a certain structure, formulaic things that occur.“
Robison continues, “We can only move our bodies in so many ways. There's some weird, some awesome things, that are like, ‘oh my god, how did they do that?’ That's the magic that occurs when I see musicians, or I see a piece of artwork that drives me to tears or makes me really think, there's some magic there where they really took it and pushed that ball down the road. You're not inventing the wheel. The wheel is there, but it's yours to play with. It's your ball, your court. What do you do with that?“
Story by Megan Rogers
Greg Lyman
When Greg Lyman isn’t the department chair for Engineering Technologies, Safety and Construction (ETSC), you can hear him strummin’ some sick beats on his electric and stand-up bass.
Lyman started playing electric bass in high school, then got into upright bass in college. He says that after trying out different instruments, he leaned towards bass. “I think it was because of different music I was listening to, and just enjoying more of the low-end stuff,” Lyman says.
Lyman says he started listening to progressive rock and classic rock as a kid, and while he still plays this type of music, jazz endures as his favorite.
Currently, Lyman is in a couple of local bands: Rusty Cage and the Ellensburg Big Band. Lyman says he joined these bands for the opportunity and to become acquainted with other musicians.
Lyman says his favorite thing about performing is the connection to the crowd, which reminds him of teaching at CWU.
"When I'm teaching [and] developing that connection with the students, [it’s the] same thing with the crowd, like you get that energy from the crowd and we're producing energy,” Lyman says.
Some of Lyman’s favorite places he has performed were the Montreux Jazz Festival, North Sea Jazz Festival and in New Zealand.
Lyman, who is an electrical engineer by trade, got into electrical engineering because of music. When he was playing gigs, he would start fixing and tinkering with the equipment.“I wanted to eventually build my own bass amps,” Lyman says.
Lyman started teaching at CWU in 2016. Lyman did teach electronics and robotics courses, but he says it has been partially due to his administration work. When Lyman does teach, he says he likes to find ways to incorporate his passion for music into the classroom.
“If we're talking about voltage or current or whatever electrical characteristic … there's an audio example that I can bring up,” Lyman says. “If I use some audio example to talk about something that may seem obscure, they're able to connect with it.”
Lyman says that his favorite thing about CWU is teaching labs because of the small class size, which allows more one-on-one interaction. “Helping the students and seeing those ‘a-ha’ moments,” Lyman says, “that's the best part.”
As chair of ETSC, he helps provide oversight for the seven different programs in the department. He also helps with budgeting, scheduling, working with faculty and beyond. Lyman says his favorite thing about being chair is focusing on students' success.
“The most exciting thing is when I see freshmen coming in, they're not really sure if they can do it,” Lyman says. “And to see them on that path and then they graduate, go get their first job.”
Lyman says that a lot of the things he learned as a musician were able to help him as department chair.
“How does a team interact? How does a band interact?” Lyman says. “A lot of that social skill stuff I learned as a musician, and then I can use that here to help lead the department.”
Story by Megan Rogers
David Douglas
TikTok star by night, Senior Lecturer and Advisor for Information Technology and Administrative Management (ITAM) by day: David Douglas does it all, in style.
Douglas joined TikTok (@thedouglasworld) about three years ago after his son brought it up. Since then, he has amassed 41 thousand followers. Douglas says that this growth happened over about a year. When a video went viral he would notice an increase of followers.
Douglas says he has been active on other social media for years and that is enough because he is busy, but his son said that he would be good on TikTok, so he decided to give it a try.
Doulags says the type of videos that he enjoys making are of him, his wife and their lives. He also makes videos about his recovery from addiction, mental health, ways to improve your life and daily quotes.
“Don't try to be anything other than who you are,” Douglas says. “It surrounds just being human, being authentic and helping each other.”
Around the same time that Douglas started TikTok, his wife was going back to school to get her teaching certificate and opening up her own preschool. Douglas says that his followers would respond to videos about that.
“They [his followers] really love my wife,” Douglas says. “I think they like me and they love the dogs, but she's just her and she's amazing.”
Douglas says that he also enjoys simply making couples videos with his wife of them having fun together and bantering.
“I always love coming down in the morning and I'll see what she's wearing for the day, and so I'll do a video of that,” Douglas says.
Viewers can also find inspirational videos on his TikTok. “What if on this day, you said, ‘you know what, I’m going to try anyway. I have doubt in my brain, I’m not sure if I can do it, but I’m gonna try anyway,’” Douglas says in a TikTok.
The takeaway Douglas hopes people get from his videos is to just be their authentic self and to let people know that he is just a normal guy.
“I'm nobody special, and same with my wife, she would say the same thing,” Douglas says. “We're just living our life, and encourage others to do the same.”
When he is not making TikToks, Douglas has been educating students at CWU since the summer of 2012. Douglas says his favorite things about CWU are working with and mentoring students.
“I love interacting with students and helping students be successful, however I can do that,” Douglas says.
Douglas states that while he mainly makes TikToks about his personal life, he occasionally makes some videos on campus. Some of Douglas’ favorite classes that he teaches are freshman level IT 184 and ADMG 201, an introductory business course.
“We get a lot of different majors in [ADMG 201]” Douglas says. “That's a great class.”