I am moved by the act of learning
A personal reflection on how learning through making – from ceramics to craftsmanship – has shaped my way of being and creating in the world.
Ana Clemente
Some people live on certainties — I live on the excitement of the new.
I like surprises, the creative spark that reinvents the future, the wonder of the unknown. I like the way knowledge subtly expands us from within, like someone shaping clay with careful fingers.
I grew up seeing the world through my hands. I sewed, embroidered, wove, did macramé, painted glass, created paper, molded plaster and wax. Schools still taught with their hands, and at home there was room to experiment. I had that privilege — and perhaps that is where this way of looking began, where learning is always a possibility to create.
When people ask me what I do, I hesitate. Not because I don't know, but because I do too much.
Architecture taught me to think about space. Jewelry taught me to work on detail. Pottery taught me to listen to the material. Craftsmanship, that vast universe where so many forms of knowledge intersect, showed me that making is, above all, a gesture of listening — to time, to others, to tradition, to the earth.
It was this desire to listen that led me to the Trás di Monti Arts and Crafts Center in Tarrafal, Cape Verde. I wanted to learn from the potters, from their ancient gestures, from the memory they hold in their bodies. I exchanged sunny afternoons and rest time for silent hours in front of the clay. And I gained so much: encounters, complicity, shared words, respect, friendship. I learned that the time of clay is also the time of trust.
Ceramics taught me to fail. To repeat. To start over. And to continue.
Because there are processes that only reveal themselves to those who persist. Because there are forms that only come into being when we accept imperfection. Because creating is also about believing, even when you can't see the result.
For me, learning is a way of being in the world.
It requires humility, dedication, listening. Without sharing, there is no transmission. Without desire, there is no master. As in life: give and take. In a delicate balance where pleasure only comes with progress, and progress only comes with love. Love for what you do, for those who teach you, for the path itself.
People ask me if all this has a purpose.
It does.
It is my way of being and creating.
It is what keeps me going.
