The audio file for this article was produced by the Ceramic Arts Network staff and not read by the author.
Ceramics Monthly: What topics are central to your work and/or research as an artist and why?
Kyle Lascelle: In my practice, I question memory and recollection, art history, and functionality (both theoretical and practical). It is the union of these themes and topics that makes my work possible.
Memory and recollection: Clay is soft and mailable, but when fired, it becomes hard forever. It is this quality of the material that interests me. I think of the objects I make as a coalescence of ideas, experiences, and moments that are frozen by fire.
Moments that transform—with time—the mundane, everyday personal stuff to reflections of whimsy.
Art history: In my work, I pair art history with parody, puns, and craftsmanship. Tiny pieces from the life of ceramics (art) serve as a canvas to display my own. Currently, I am inspired by the Funk Art movement, Staffordshire figures and teapots, North
Devon Harvest Ware, Giorgio Morandi, 19th-century Delftware, and American stoneware.
Functionality: When making pots, even sculptural ones, I want them to work well and have balance both in composition and wall thickness. When deconstructing or working with parody in my work, I still want the ethos of the object to rhyme with the idea
of function or utility.
1 Kyle Lascelle's Severed Toby (vicissi-atti-tude), 24 in. (61 cm) in diameter, dark stoneware, fired in oxidation to cone 5, 2024.
CM: How do you incorporate experimentation into your studio practice?
KL: Patience is not really my thing . . . I’m easily distractable. This can seem antithetical to the practice of ceramics. However, experimentation, for me, is my lack of patience. It stems from urgency and play. I like to work
on multiple objects at a time. Doing this makes me less fixated on the singular and more likely to improvise, keeping me engaged.
2 Kyle Lascelle's Tippoo Garniture with Goose Tippet, 24 in. (61 cm) in diameter, red earthenware, fired in oxidation to cone 04, 2023.
CM: What is the most valuable advice you’ve received as an artist and why?
KL: It is difficult to pick a single piece of advice, so here are three:
1. Follow the joy. There are easier ways to make a living than in the arts. If you’re not enjoying making your work, why not do something that makes your life easier? Following the thread of joy leads to alternative paths and new puzzles that you
may not expect.
2. Have the right amount of wrongness to justify the rightness (visual dissonance). Right and wrong decisions aren’t always quantifiable or easy to detect. These decisions are different for every artist. Whatever your version of right is, adding
a moment of wrong can make the right moments look and feel more right in comparison, making a more intriguing composition. This moment of wrong for me often materializes in squish, tension, slowness in opposition to tight, breath, and speed. I like
to think that this opposition creates an expansion and contraction in the work, like a pair of lungs.
3. Make it first, then think about it. Ideation is an important skill, especially when learning a new medium. However, overthinking before starting can be debilitating. Making something, anything, before thinking can lead to the unexpected.
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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 topics are central to your work and/or research as an artist and why?
Kyle Lascelle: In my practice, I question memory and recollection, art history, and functionality (both theoretical and practical). It is the union of these themes and topics that makes my work possible.
Memory and recollection: Clay is soft and mailable, but when fired, it becomes hard forever. It is this quality of the material that interests me. I think of the objects I make as a coalescence of ideas, experiences, and moments that are frozen by fire. Moments that transform—with time—the mundane, everyday personal stuff to reflections of whimsy.
Art history: In my work, I pair art history with parody, puns, and craftsmanship. Tiny pieces from the life of ceramics (art) serve as a canvas to display my own. Currently, I am inspired by the Funk Art movement, Staffordshire figures and teapots, North Devon Harvest Ware, Giorgio Morandi, 19th-century Delftware, and American stoneware.
Functionality: When making pots, even sculptural ones, I want them to work well and have balance both in composition and wall thickness. When deconstructing or working with parody in my work, I still want the ethos of the object to rhyme with the idea of function or utility.
CM: How do you incorporate experimentation into your studio practice?
KL: Patience is not really my thing . . . I’m easily distractable. This can seem antithetical to the practice of ceramics. However, experimentation, for me, is my lack of patience. It stems from urgency and play. I like to work on multiple objects at a time. Doing this makes me less fixated on the singular and more likely to improvise, keeping me engaged.
CM: What is the most valuable advice you’ve received as an artist and why?
KL: It is difficult to pick a single piece of advice, so here are three:
1. Follow the joy. There are easier ways to make a living than in the arts. If you’re not enjoying making your work, why not do something that makes your life easier? Following the thread of joy leads to alternative paths and new puzzles that you may not expect.
2. Have the right amount of wrongness to justify the rightness (visual dissonance). Right and wrong decisions aren’t always quantifiable or easy to detect. These decisions are different for every artist. Whatever your version of right is, adding a moment of wrong can make the right moments look and feel more right in comparison, making a more intriguing composition. This moment of wrong for me often materializes in squish, tension, slowness in opposition to tight, breath, and speed. I like to think that this opposition creates an expansion and contraction in the work, like a pair of lungs.
3. Make it first, then think about it. Ideation is an important skill, especially when learning a new medium. However, overthinking before starting can be debilitating. Making something, anything, before thinking can lead to the unexpected.
Learn more at kylelascellepottery.com.
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