🎧 2026 Emerging Artist: Corinna Cowles, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Ceramics Monthly

The audio file for this article was produced by the Ceramic Arts Network staff and not read by the author.

Ceramics Monthly: Do you maintain a sketchbook for idea generation or as a supplement to your work with clay? If so, describe its use. If not, describe how you gather thoughts and ideas.

Corinna Cowles: I use collage to translate my sketches and ideas into shapes, colors, and patterns. Fragments from my daily sketchbook—which is filled with lists, deadlines, basic math, random phrases I jot down, sticky notes shoved between pages, and the ideas and images that come to me while I’m riding the bus—are always part of the scrap pile.

For me, collage deepens the relationship between clay and painting. The immediacy of paper, paint, and drawing materials allows me to quickly make moves and generates ideas, provides templates, and loosens me up to play while using clay.

CM: What role does tactility play in your work? 

CC: Tactility plays a major role in my work! I love to work materials, textures, and color into my ceramics visually and physically. When things become juicy, blobby, asymmetrical, and weird—that's when it gets good.

This touch connection ends up feeling like collaborating (sometimes battling) with my materials. It’s rewarding when viewers get excited and want to touch my work. I want them to feel the color, playfulness, and tension that I felt while making it.

Learn more at corinnacowles.com or follow on Instagram @corinna.cowles.clay.

May 2026: Table of Contents

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