Other Peoples Pots

Every day my desire for a different studio environment grows. Yesterday I was taking photos of my classmates work for our end of semester sale postcard. I realized there are five advanced students who have made pots this semester that are very similar to each other, which are also very similar to our professor's pots, mainly in the way they are glazed, but also in style for some. Though I was at first attracted to the glaze combination our professor discovered, it's now like an average song on the radio - repetitive, unoriginal, and overdone. Unfortunately, none of the pots are outstanding. Lorna Meaden talked about the subject during her slide presentation at NCECA this year in Pittsburgh. She said she was once a subject of "OPP" - Other People's Pots. It seems like an easy thing to be subject to. I know I was. One of the most advanced students in our studio last year made tea bowls that looked exactly like Tom Coleman's. Meaden said that going to graduate school made her realize this fault. So do we blame the professor? Of course a large part of our growth depends on the work we put in on our own, but shouldn't the professor be guiding us? Challenging us, and asking us to question why we do what we do? I hear once in a while, maybe at the beginning of the semester, talk of the matter...
Though I'm not ready in my career for graduate school, I am antsy to find out what it's like. I want to find a professor who will truly challenge me perhaps even more than I challenge myself. I'm just getting antsy to finish my undergrad work. Wherever I go next, I'm excited to be moving forward.