They spend their time wrapping their fingers around clay and firing up their minds with infinite possibilities.

They are the ceramic students taught by Rich Conover at South Whidbey High School. These young artists will open the final ceramics show “Art by Fire: Enso,” on Saturday, May 30 at Open Door Gallery One at Bayview Corner.

Enso is an ancient Zen symbol that represents the circle of infinity.

As a small group of ceramic students who visited the Record before the show’s opening explained, Enso is everything and nothing. It includes all things visible and unseen. Enso, they said, is the ending and the beginning.

Just as this show will be the end of “Art by Fire,” so it will be the beginning of something else, the students said.

This is a title that comes from minds that have been sharpened by the exercise of deep thinking.

Students Tim Atkinson, Mahriah Hill, Anna Lennon and South Whidbey High School graduate and studio assistant to Conover, Richie Alexander, had come to talk about the show.

But the conversation veered consistently to Conover’s influence on them not just as artists, but as thinkers.

Analogous to the daily fire that heats their studio’s kiln is Conover’s inspiration to learn more than just how to throw a pot. Conover challenges these students to heated discourse.

“If you want, Mr. Conover will teach you more in this one class than you’ve learned in all of high school,” Lennon said.

“If you show him you’re into it, then he’ll give you more than you expected,” Atkinson said.

Alexander agreed and said that part of the reason he delayed plans for college was to absorb more of Conover’s influence. (He’ll start working on a master of fine arts degree this fall.)

“Conversations with Rich are inspirational. He’s a great thinker and great to be around,” Alexander said.

In addition to learning the fundamentals of how to create wheel-thrown pots, hand-built vessels and free-form sculptures, was the collective feeling of the group that art goes beyond the clay, the kiln, the glaze or any of it.

“It goes back to Enso,” Alexander said. “Everything resonates, everything relates.”

“But you have to be up for it, because he doesn’t like people to waste his time,” Hill added.

About 15 people in the class are up for it and will be showing their work.

As studio technician and Conover’s right-hand-man, Alexander will curate the show and choose about 40 to 50 pieces for exhibition, including vessels, wall hangings, sculptures and mantel pieces.

“Enso” opens at 10 a.m. Saturday, May 30 with an artists’ reception from 1 to 4 p.m. The show continues from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday and Monday,

May 31 and June 1.