The audio file for this article was produced by the Ceramic Arts Network staff and not read by the author.
Ceramics Monthly: What inspires your work in clay?
Gina Pisto: I feel driven by a desire to understand and explore the transformative and transportive potential of objects, and how we find connections to the things we choose to surround ourselves with. I’m interested in the function
of remembering, and how objects may aid in that practice. In my current portal series, I’ve been exploring windows and arches—things that we physically pass or look through. I borrow these architectural elements and conceptually
frame them as portals or gateways to the past. I’ve always been interested in vanitas painting and Victorian mourning practices, and so I fill these portals with reminders of life and death like flowers, animals, insects, fruit, shells, jewelry,
and timepieces. I enjoy using and referencing these forms because they’re accessible and understandable to the viewer, and I believe that it’s through emotional capacity and imbued memory that ordinary things become extraordinary. Black
has long been my favorite color, and so I use a minimal color palette when finishing this work so that these pieces can transcend the strictly mimetic and instead encourage viewers to think about the metaphorical ways in which we access memory through
objects and collections.
1 Gina Pisto's portal III, 22 in. (55.9 cm) in height, stoneware, glaze, fired in oxidation to cone 6, 2024.
CM: How do you incorporate experimentation into your studio practice?
GP: I try to work iteratively as much as possible. I’ll make something and then respond to that thing by making something else and then respond to that with something else, so on and so forth. I also try to be critical of my first
(or second, or third) instincts when working on a piece. I think the first answer I come to is often not the best solution, so I try to regularly challenge myself to be scrutinous of relying too heavily on whatever the low-hanging fruit might be.
Sometimes the work or forms I reference start to feel too repetitive, so I’ll turn to research or even construct an entirely different kind of object to flex some different muscles.
2 Gina Pisto's portal V, 14 in. (35.6 cm) in height, stoneware, underglaze, glaze, fired in oxidation to cone 6, 2024.
CM: What is the most valuable advice you’ve received as an artist?
GP: “Work makes work.” When I was an undergraduate at Grand Valley State University in Allendale, Michigan, Hoon Lee said that to me, and it’s always stuck. You’ve got to do the hard work to make the work you want
to make. I think it can be very easy to theorize your way out of making certain work or taking risks for fear of failure, but ultimately, I feel that you really don’t know how the work is going to go until you bring it into reality. I try to
frame so-called unsuccessful pieces or failures in the studio as learning opportunities as much as I can. From there, I do what my graduate school mentor Brad Schwieger would always say, and “Get back to work.”
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The audio file for this article was produced by the Ceramic Arts Network staff and not read by the author.
Ceramics Monthly: What inspires your work in clay?
Gina Pisto: I feel driven by a desire to understand and explore the transformative and transportive potential of objects, and how we find connections to the things we choose to surround ourselves with. I’m interested in the function of remembering, and how objects may aid in that practice. In my current portal series, I’ve been exploring windows and arches—things that we physically pass or look through. I borrow these architectural elements and conceptually frame them as portals or gateways to the past. I’ve always been interested in vanitas painting and Victorian mourning practices, and so I fill these portals with reminders of life and death like flowers, animals, insects, fruit, shells, jewelry, and timepieces. I enjoy using and referencing these forms because they’re accessible and understandable to the viewer, and I believe that it’s through emotional capacity and imbued memory that ordinary things become extraordinary. Black has long been my favorite color, and so I use a minimal color palette when finishing this work so that these pieces can transcend the strictly mimetic and instead encourage viewers to think about the metaphorical ways in which we access memory through objects and collections.
CM: How do you incorporate experimentation into your studio practice?
GP: I try to work iteratively as much as possible. I’ll make something and then respond to that thing by making something else and then respond to that with something else, so on and so forth. I also try to be critical of my first (or second, or third) instincts when working on a piece. I think the first answer I come to is often not the best solution, so I try to regularly challenge myself to be scrutinous of relying too heavily on whatever the low-hanging fruit might be. Sometimes the work or forms I reference start to feel too repetitive, so I’ll turn to research or even construct an entirely different kind of object to flex some different muscles.
CM: What is the most valuable advice you’ve received as an artist?
GP: “Work makes work.” When I was an undergraduate at Grand Valley State University in Allendale, Michigan, Hoon Lee said that to me, and it’s always stuck. You’ve got to do the hard work to make the work you want to make. I think it can be very easy to theorize your way out of making certain work or taking risks for fear of failure, but ultimately, I feel that you really don’t know how the work is going to go until you bring it into reality. I try to frame so-called unsuccessful pieces or failures in the studio as learning opportunities as much as I can. From there, I do what my graduate school mentor Brad Schwieger would always say, and “Get back to work.”
Learn more at ginapisto.com.
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