It’s funny how the things we pick up from our lived experiences unconsciously infiltrate, shape, and support our approach to other facets of our lives. The path to one solution becomes the blueprint for the next investigation; a question answered blooms into new inquiries, skills mastered are challenged with new applications, a tool built for one job is the missing piece to another. This cross-disciplinary application has led to advancements across the board, from macro (think jacquard looms to computational advancements) to micro (like everyday kitchen tools repurposed in the studio) ways.
Whether it’s a skill, an observation, a collection, or a hobby, we all take the things we’ve done before into each new day and each curiosity-sparked search for a solution. This pieced-together problem solving builds our worlds in a way that only we can–each person an individual and unique vehicle for growth and change.
As a ceramicist whose first love was printmaking, I can easily follow the deftness of carving through asphaltum on a zinc plate to the mechanics of inlaying drawn lines into a greenware cup–the act, the filled line, related, yet the medium, quite different. The high-stress environment of a busy Friday night waiting tables honed my multi-tasking skills. Which, as it turns out, was a training ground for putting out emotional and figurative fires with my two children, where a calm approach to triaging challenges is essential. Our editor, Katie Reaver, is on parental leave as I write this letter, and I’m certain she’s finding strength in, and surprising new applications for, skills developed outside her new role as mother. We are a conglomeration of our applied skills, interests, limitations, successes, and the artists included in this issue are no different. They have each found ways to pull from their anecdotal toolbox to take on the tasks that lie in front of them.
When met with a life-altering moment, Dawn Hintgen returned to clay and brought with her adaptations developed in her kitchen, enabling her to make work despite her new limitations.
Chris Alveshere’s work came into its own once he dressed his pots in the same bright, playful colors of his daily tie-dye shirts and his treasured toy collection found its way into his forms and finishes.
Joanna Poag, this month’s Artist’s Voice: Q&A, shares how, at a point where the challenges of motherhood, the pandemic, and stagnation in her studio had her looking for relief and inspiration, a low-stakes, paper-collage practice reinvigorated and moved her work from ordered rigidity to an exploration of intuitively pieced patterns.
After traveling abroad to study the historic process of jarre à la corde, Benjamin Oswald discusses how CAD software and CNC routers are becoming resources for contemporary makers to visualize and create frameworks for large vessels with precision.
Friends Abbie Edmonson and Jessica Gutierrez’s studio, HTX Clay, is our inaugural Studio Shoutout Clay Culture. Included a handful of times each year, these articles will spotlight non-academic studios making a difference and providing a resource in their communities.
Bringing woodworking skills with her, Emma Whitney was drawn to East Fork for their dedication to their craft. While the practical reasons made it a great employment choice for Whitney and her teammate Kate Johnson, they both have amassed a variety of technical and management skills honed on the production floor that will carry them through the next phases of their careers.
As we greet a new year and all the challenges and opportunities that are sure to present themselves, I hope the stories and work of the artists in the following pages remind you that it’s never too late to start over, try something new, or look at something from another perspective. Who knows how it will shape what you do or who you become next?
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It’s funny how the things we pick up from our lived experiences unconsciously infiltrate, shape, and support our approach to other facets of our lives. The path to one solution becomes the blueprint for the next investigation; a question answered blooms into new inquiries, skills mastered are challenged with new applications, a tool built for one job is the missing piece to another. This cross-disciplinary application has led to advancements across the board, from macro (think jacquard looms to computational advancements) to micro (like everyday kitchen tools repurposed in the studio) ways.
Whether it’s a skill, an observation, a collection, or a hobby, we all take the things we’ve done before into each new day and each curiosity-sparked search for a solution. This pieced-together problem solving builds our worlds in a way that only we can–each person an individual and unique vehicle for growth and change.
As a ceramicist whose first love was printmaking, I can easily follow the deftness of carving through asphaltum on a zinc plate to the mechanics of inlaying drawn lines into a greenware cup–the act, the filled line, related, yet the medium, quite different. The high-stress environment of a busy Friday night waiting tables honed my multi-tasking skills. Which, as it turns out, was a training ground for putting out emotional and figurative fires with my two children, where a calm approach to triaging challenges is essential. Our editor, Katie Reaver, is on parental leave as I write this letter, and I’m certain she’s finding strength in, and surprising new applications for, skills developed outside her new role as mother. We are a conglomeration of our applied skills, interests, limitations, successes, and the artists included in this issue are no different. They have each found ways to pull from their anecdotal toolbox to take on the tasks that lie in front of them.
When met with a life-altering moment, Dawn Hintgen returned to clay and brought with her adaptations developed in her kitchen, enabling her to make work despite her new limitations.
Chris Alveshere’s work came into its own once he dressed his pots in the same bright, playful colors of his daily tie-dye shirts and his treasured toy collection found its way into his forms and finishes.
Joanna Poag, this month’s Artist’s Voice: Q&A, shares how, at a point where the challenges of motherhood, the pandemic, and stagnation in her studio had her looking for relief and inspiration, a low-stakes, paper-collage practice reinvigorated and moved her work from ordered rigidity to an exploration of intuitively pieced patterns.
After traveling abroad to study the historic process of jarre à la corde, Benjamin Oswald discusses how CAD software and CNC routers are becoming resources for contemporary makers to visualize and create frameworks for large vessels with precision.
Friends Abbie Edmonson and Jessica Gutierrez’s studio, HTX Clay, is our inaugural Studio Shoutout Clay Culture. Included a handful of times each year, these articles will spotlight non-academic studios making a difference and providing a resource in their communities.
Bringing woodworking skills with her, Emma Whitney was drawn to East Fork for their dedication to their craft. While the practical reasons made it a great employment choice for Whitney and her teammate Kate Johnson, they both have amassed a variety of technical and management skills honed on the production floor that will carry them through the next phases of their careers.
As we greet a new year and all the challenges and opportunities that are sure to present themselves, I hope the stories and work of the artists in the following pages remind you that it’s never too late to start over, try something new, or look at something from another perspective. Who knows how it will shape what you do or who you become next?
Cheers!
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