Welcome to the September issue of Ceramics Monthly! With this curated collection of articles and information, I invite you to consider clay for its materiality—what about clay and ceramics entices us as makers, captures our attention as viewers, and engages our senses as users? The artists featured in the pages that follow describe their varied paths to finding and working with clay, as well as what this material means to their personal practices.
When approached to create the illustrations for a graphic novel, Anne Koszalka turned to clay and created over 300 handmade tiles with drawing, sgraffito, and painting techniques. The choice of clay was natural, as Koszalka has decades of experience with the medium. The resulting illustrations prove that clay can be a powerful tool for storytelling.
Glen R. Brown describes the complex installations of Kahlil Robert Irving, which are conceptually centered on the street as a material marvel rich in metaphor and connection. Brown says of Irving: “Nevertheless, clay has remained foundational to his practice. ‘I love making things out of clay,’ he asserts. ‘Clay is a material integral to my life, my well-being, the way I think about things, the way I do things. The political history and the racist history of ceramics, especially living in the Western world, appropriating and co-opting objects from other cultures to gain capital or control a market—those subjects are very important to me. All of that is a way that I think about art, how I think about my place within it.’”
Armi Teva’s design background and experience with a range of media have led her to use ceramics as a tool for drawing and painting. The objects she makes, from handbuilt sculptures of cakes to face reliefs, are expressive and unique.
Rochelle Chinnery’s affinity for material—working with a paper-porcelain clay—enabled her to settle in at a residency in Rome and ensure the weeks of focused studio time were fruitful. D Wood describes the artist’s work, along with the lessons she took from Italy back to her home studio in British Columbia.
Amy Sanders uses clay to play with form and ideas in making assembled pots. The pouring pots demonstrated step by step in her process article employ experimentation at each step, from throwing multiple components, to fitting parts together into a cohesive vessel, to finishing with various surface treatments.
In this issue’s Techno File, Jeff Zamek returns to discuss improving clay bodies; it’s not only about choosing the best materials, but also about choosing the right combination. Our Spotlight introduces Caroline Slotte’s methods for repurposing secondhand, fired ceramic vessels. In this work, she treats the existing material as a collaborator. Renee LoPresti, whose stacked mugs are shown on this issue’s cover, invites us into her Wisconsin workspace for a Studio Visit. Her three thoughtfully designed spaces enable LoPresti to approach making cycles with clarity, working from one space to the next as the work moves through the process from greenware to glazing to documentation and sale.
Clay lends itself to functional objects because of its ability to transform into a material that can be watertight and food safe, as has been practiced for tens of thousands of years. Our annual readership-wide contest, Function Focused, tasked entrants with sharing work made for use, embracing clay’s fundamental appeal. The submitted pieces represented all manner of functional objects from ubiquitous to obscure, and the 18 works selected as finalists demonstrate the versatility of this medium. In addition to variety in form and object, these pots show the endless possibilities of clay as a medium in their choices of clay bodies, firings, and finishing techniques. See page 30 to read the feature and see the functional vessels. Enjoy!
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Welcome to the September issue of Ceramics Monthly! With this curated collection of articles and information, I invite you to consider clay for its materiality—what about clay and ceramics entices us as makers, captures our attention as viewers, and engages our senses as users? The artists featured in the pages that follow describe their varied paths to finding and working with clay, as well as what this material means to their personal practices.
When approached to create the illustrations for a graphic novel, Anne Koszalka turned to clay and created over 300 handmade tiles with drawing, sgraffito, and painting techniques. The choice of clay was natural, as Koszalka has decades of experience with the medium. The resulting illustrations prove that clay can be a powerful tool for storytelling.
Glen R. Brown describes the complex installations of Kahlil Robert Irving, which are conceptually centered on the street as a material marvel rich in metaphor and connection. Brown says of Irving: “Nevertheless, clay has remained foundational to his practice. ‘I love making things out of clay,’ he asserts. ‘Clay is a material integral to my life, my well-being, the way I think about things, the way I do things. The political history and the racist history of ceramics, especially living in the Western world, appropriating and co-opting objects from other cultures to gain capital or control a market—those subjects are very important to me. All of that is a way that I think about art, how I think about my place within it.’”
Armi Teva’s design background and experience with a range of media have led her to use ceramics as a tool for drawing and painting. The objects she makes, from handbuilt sculptures of cakes to face reliefs, are expressive and unique.
Rochelle Chinnery’s affinity for material—working with a paper-porcelain clay—enabled her to settle in at a residency in Rome and ensure the weeks of focused studio time were fruitful. D Wood describes the artist’s work, along with the lessons she took from Italy back to her home studio in British Columbia.
Amy Sanders uses clay to play with form and ideas in making assembled pots. The pouring pots demonstrated step by step in her process article employ experimentation at each step, from throwing multiple components, to fitting parts together into a cohesive vessel, to finishing with various surface treatments.
In this issue’s Techno File, Jeff Zamek returns to discuss improving clay bodies; it’s not only about choosing the best materials, but also about choosing the right combination. Our Spotlight introduces Caroline Slotte’s methods for repurposing secondhand, fired ceramic vessels. In this work, she treats the existing material as a collaborator. Renee LoPresti, whose stacked mugs are shown on this issue’s cover, invites us into her Wisconsin workspace for a Studio Visit. Her three thoughtfully designed spaces enable LoPresti to approach making cycles with clarity, working from one space to the next as the work moves through the process from greenware to glazing to documentation and sale.
Clay lends itself to functional objects because of its ability to transform into a material that can be watertight and food safe, as has been practiced for tens of thousands of years. Our annual readership-wide contest, Function Focused, tasked entrants with sharing work made for use, embracing clay’s fundamental appeal. The submitted pieces represented all manner of functional objects from ubiquitous to obscure, and the 18 works selected as finalists demonstrate the versatility of this medium. In addition to variety in form and object, these pots show the endless possibilities of clay as a medium in their choices of clay bodies, firings, and finishing techniques. See page 30 to read the feature and see the functional vessels. Enjoy!
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