SPORTS SPORTS NEWS
The athlete, the artist Meet three student-athletes who make time for academics, their sport and the arts. They do it with the help of coaches and professors who understand they are not defined only by what they do in their major, on the field or in the gym. Their art—pottery, music, poetry—is part of who they are and provides them a space to give to others and to themselves.
“He’s a potter,” she stated, meaning he is more than a student of ceramics. “He’s interested in challenging it and taking each detail to the next level. He’s just really observant; and his work shows that he is paying attention to understanding formal elements of design in his piece.” Grannemann is a math teaching major graduating this spring, with two teaching/coaching job offers in suburban Chicago, so far. While his mom and sister both are “art-inclined,” he said he had never been serious about art before Augustana. “Now it’s not serious in the way that you’d think— like getting a job or anything like that—but I take it seriously in that I want to get better with it, and create things that are cool.” He thought he’d try ceramics after a teammate recommended the class. “Yeah, it was kind of dumb luck, and then I ended up getting addicted, so you trapped me,” he laughed with Quinn. For Grannemann, making art is more than creating new pieces. It’s also a way to unwind. Art professor Megan Quinn and baseball catcher Ryan “I had a weird transition where baseball used to be Grannemann ’19 have known each other through two really therapeutic for me, and I used to go and hit for art classes and two independent studies in ceramics. hours. But once I got to college, it turned into a little He’s even joined her for art show openings in downtown bit more of a job, and art filled that void of being a Rock Island. therapeutic way to just relax,” he said. Quinn calls Grannemann ambitious. When he took “I could come in here for three hours, and I wouldn’t his first class with her, he was the first student to realize how much time had passed. It’s a way to get arrive at the Friday “help hours,” every time. your mind off of all the crazy stuff that’s going on outside of the pottery building.”
AUGUSTANA MAGAZINE | SPRING 2019
THE POTTER | CATCHER
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