Though I began as a painter, I have spent most of my career as a potter. That began to change a few years ago. I started spending more time making drawings and now my work includes drawings, paintings, and pottery. I move between three different studios when working—a private ceramic studio, a college ceramic studio, and a separate drawing and painting studio. Nearly all the forming and decorating of my pottery begins in my home pottery studio, which is a converted one-stall garage (20 × 19 feet (6 × 5.8 m)) next to my house. Once the forming and decorating are complete, the work is then driven as greenware to the college where I teach (about a mile away) and that’s where I prepare materials, glaze, and fire the work in either an anagama-style wood kiln or in a down-draft gas kiln. I use a separate studio to draw and paint, which is about four miles away. My favorite aspect of having these different places is that I’m able to set up each space to support the work that I’m making. I’ve noticed that this has helped my focus and keeps the materials and process separate.
My ceramic studio has four main workspaces: an area for two pottery wheels, a worktable on heavy-duty caster wheels, ware rack, and wedging table made from the trunk of an elm tree cut from my backyard. Everything in the studio is moved around on 1×6-inch by 6-foot ware boards. I primarily work on low-momentum kick wheels when throwing, trimming, decorating, and handbuilding. I have a space for ware boards between the two wheels. When finished, or the board is full, I move the board from the wheel area to the worktable. Boards of work accumulate on the table until ready for the next step (trimming or additional forming). I use sheets of plastic made from garbage bags to cover the work when I’m not in the studio – gently floating the sheet over the wet work and tucking the edges under the board. Boards of finished greenware are moved to the ware rack until they are ready to fire then slid into the back of my car (I made sure I had space for 6-foot-long boards when buying it), and I drive them as greenware to the school’s studio. There the work is either bisque fired or brought to the wood kiln to be fired green. Some of the work is glazed with an ash glaze and fired in the gas kiln while other pieces are left raw and fired in the wood kiln. The walls of my home ceramic studio are lined with shelves. I store/display most of my finished work on them for guests to see when visiting. The studio is well-insulated and is heated by a small electric heater mounted to the ceiling. The studio doesn’t have running water, so I occasionally fill a bucket and bring it into the workspace.
Paying Dues (and Bills)
My training was varied and came through a combination of experiences: I was introduced to painting and eventually pottery in college, served an apprenticeship in pottery, traveled nationally and internationally to see various studios and approaches in ceramics, studied ceramic design at Denmark’s Design School in Copenhagen, worked and traveled as a studio guest in Japan, and eventually went to graduate school for ceramics and drawing at the University of Iowa before accepting my teaching assignment and establishing my own kiln in a small college town in rural Minnesota.
Though travel was invaluable, the most significant education came from my three-and-a-half-year apprenticeship to Richard Bresnahan at The St. John’s Pottery in Collegeville, Minnesota. This was a deep immersion into pottery and working within another artist’s practice. We often worked six or seven days a week, ten- or twelve-hour days, and I lived in a small room above the studio. It was a whole life structured around the studio and supporting the needs of my mentor. Many aspects of the studio were based upon pre-industrial techniques, which were passed down through a particular Japanese pottery tradition that my mentor interpreted, adapted, and passed on to his apprentices. We worked with locally sourced materials (clay, sands, ashes, iron, wood), used lightweight, low-momentum kick wheels, and carved most of our tools from blocks of wood.
Studying a particular pottery tradition allowed for a deep and enduring absorption of its processes and aesthetics. This was sometimes in sharp contrast with what I found on the road while traveling. Though I set out to discover other attitudes and approaches in ceramics, what I found often challenged the beliefs that had begun to take root. Sometimes the conflict between what I believed and what I was encountering was so great that the beauty of what I was seeing could only be sensed. It took time to accept it. This period of research—visiting studios and sleeping on floors—was often jarring and usually breathtakingly beautiful. The whole of it broke and restored my heart daily.
I now work as the department chair and art professor at the College of St. Benedict and St. John’s University. I’m also a single dad of four kids and they are with me every other week.
My time in the studio varies daily and is largely impacted by my teaching and parenting schedule. I generally spend three to four hours daily in the studio during the academic year and six or more hours daily in the studio in the summer. I move between the ceramic studio and the drawing/painting studio awkwardly. I wish this was a smoother transition, but I find that when I’m working through ideas, I have trouble switching modes. I find that I need to focus on one project until it reaches a stopping point. Sometimes this means focusing on one thing for a few days, sometimes weeks. It just depends on what the work needs.
Marketing
I sell my work primarily through galleries, shops, and as a guest potter at two different home studio sales. I use Instagram to promote my artwork and share views of my studio life. I’m a member and former board member of Artaxis (artaxis.org), which is an outstanding organization.
I’ve worked with several galleries that regularly feature my work in their exhibitions, and I seek out additional exhibition opportunities for solo and group shows. These galleries include Clay Akar (www.clayakar.com), Entoten (www.entoten.com), Schaller Gallery (www.schallergallery.com), Storied Objects (www.shopstoriedobjects.com), Veronique Wantz Gallery (www.veroniquewantz.com), and 180 the Store (www.180thestore.com). I like to curate exhibitions, and though this is often not a direct way to share my own artwork, it’s a way to promote and celebrate the work of others. I’ve found this practice to be incredibly meaningful.
For the past several years I’ve sold work at the Cannon River Clay Tour and The Front Yard Pottery Sale. In both cases, the sales are organized by friends and colleagues, other potters who work in my region. It’s a joy to spend a weekend together at these sales. We compare notes, share ideas, and reconnect. My site on the Cannon River Clay Tour is hosted by Colleen Riley and Donovan Palmquist. Colleen and Donovan are wonderful hosts and have a wealth of experience to share. The Front Yard Pottery Sale is hosted by Tom and Maggie Jaszczak at their studio/home near Shafer, Minnesota. The sale takes place in coordination with Peter Jadoonath’s Back Yard Pottery Sale, which is just a few miles away. Over a few summers, Tom and Peter built a ball field on Peter’s property. Now, on the Friday evening of the two sales, we play each other in an intense game of whiffle ball. Teams are made up of guest potters, our kids, and friends and family from the community who have come to help with the sale. Last year our team, the North Shafer Night Crawlers, beat Peter’s team, the South Shafer Deer Ticks, 22–19. You’ll be happy to know that this year the returning champions won again, 30–25.
Most Important Lesson
One of the important lessons I’ve learned as a working artist is related to the importance of leaving empty spaces in the work. This is an emptiness that should leave the user wanting, places for food and drink, for flowers. These are places of desire.
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Studio
Though I began as a painter, I have spent most of my career as a potter. That began to change a few years ago. I started spending more time making drawings and now my work includes drawings, paintings, and pottery. I move between three different studios when working—a private ceramic studio, a college ceramic studio, and a separate drawing and painting studio. Nearly all the forming and decorating of my pottery begins in my home pottery studio, which is a converted one-stall garage (20 × 19 feet (6 × 5.8 m)) next to my house. Once the forming and decorating are complete, the work is then driven as greenware to the college where I teach (about a mile away) and that’s where I prepare materials, glaze, and fire the work in either an anagama-style wood kiln or in a down-draft gas kiln. I use a separate studio to draw and paint, which is about four miles away. My favorite aspect of having these different places is that I’m able to set up each space to support the work that I’m making. I’ve noticed that this has helped my focus and keeps the materials and process separate.
My ceramic studio has four main workspaces: an area for two pottery wheels, a worktable on heavy-duty caster wheels, ware rack, and wedging table made from the trunk of an elm tree cut from my backyard. Everything in the studio is moved around on 1×6-inch by 6-foot ware boards. I primarily work on low-momentum kick wheels when throwing, trimming, decorating, and handbuilding. I have a space for ware boards between the two wheels. When finished, or the board is full, I move the board from the wheel area to the worktable. Boards of work accumulate on the table until ready for the next step (trimming or additional forming). I use sheets of plastic made from garbage bags to cover the work when I’m not in the studio – gently floating the sheet over the wet work and tucking the edges under the board. Boards of finished greenware are moved to the ware rack until they are ready to fire then slid into the back of my car (I made sure I had space for 6-foot-long boards when buying it), and I drive them as greenware to the school’s studio. There the work is either bisque fired or brought to the wood kiln to be fired green. Some of the work is glazed with an ash glaze and fired in the gas kiln while other pieces are left raw and fired in the wood kiln. The walls of my home ceramic studio are lined with shelves. I store/display most of my finished work on them for guests to see when visiting. The studio is well-insulated and is heated by a small electric heater mounted to the ceiling. The studio doesn’t have running water, so I occasionally fill a bucket and bring it into the workspace.
Paying Dues (and Bills)
My training was varied and came through a combination of experiences: I was introduced to painting and eventually pottery in college, served an apprenticeship in pottery, traveled nationally and internationally to see various studios and approaches in ceramics, studied ceramic design at Denmark’s Design School in Copenhagen, worked and traveled as a studio guest in Japan, and eventually went to graduate school for ceramics and drawing at the University of Iowa before accepting my teaching assignment and establishing my own kiln in a small college town in rural Minnesota.
Though travel was invaluable, the most significant education came from my three-and-a-half-year apprenticeship to Richard Bresnahan at The St. John’s Pottery in Collegeville, Minnesota. This was a deep immersion into pottery and working within another artist’s practice. We often worked six or seven days a week, ten- or twelve-hour days, and I lived in a small room above the studio. It was a whole life structured around the studio and supporting the needs of my mentor. Many aspects of the studio were based upon pre-industrial techniques, which were passed down through a particular Japanese pottery tradition that my mentor interpreted, adapted, and passed on to his apprentices. We worked with locally sourced materials (clay, sands, ashes, iron, wood), used lightweight, low-momentum kick wheels, and carved most of our tools from blocks of wood.
Studying a particular pottery tradition allowed for a deep and enduring absorption of its processes and aesthetics. This was sometimes in sharp contrast with what I found on the road while traveling. Though I set out to discover other attitudes and approaches in ceramics, what I found often challenged the beliefs that had begun to take root. Sometimes the conflict between what I believed and what I was encountering was so great that the beauty of what I was seeing could only be sensed. It took time to accept it. This period of research—visiting studios and sleeping on floors—was often jarring and usually breathtakingly beautiful. The whole of it broke and restored my heart daily.
I now work as the department chair and art professor at the College of St. Benedict and St. John’s University. I’m also a single dad of four kids and they are with me every other week.
My time in the studio varies daily and is largely impacted by my teaching and parenting schedule. I generally spend three to four hours daily in the studio during the academic year and six or more hours daily in the studio in the summer. I move between the ceramic studio and the drawing/painting studio awkwardly. I wish this was a smoother transition, but I find that when I’m working through ideas, I have trouble switching modes. I find that I need to focus on one project until it reaches a stopping point. Sometimes this means focusing on one thing for a few days, sometimes weeks. It just depends on what the work needs.
Marketing
I sell my work primarily through galleries, shops, and as a guest potter at two different home studio sales. I use Instagram to promote my artwork and share views of my studio life. I’m a member and former board member of Artaxis (artaxis.org), which is an outstanding organization.
I’ve worked with several galleries that regularly feature my work in their exhibitions, and I seek out additional exhibition opportunities for solo and group shows. These galleries include Clay Akar (www.clayakar.com), Entoten (www.entoten.com), Schaller Gallery (www.schallergallery.com), Storied Objects (www.shopstoriedobjects.com), Veronique Wantz Gallery (www.veroniquewantz.com), and 180 the Store (www.180thestore.com). I like to curate exhibitions, and though this is often not a direct way to share my own artwork, it’s a way to promote and celebrate the work of others. I’ve found this practice to be incredibly meaningful.
For the past several years I’ve sold work at the Cannon River Clay Tour and The Front Yard Pottery Sale. In both cases, the sales are organized by friends and colleagues, other potters who work in my region. It’s a joy to spend a weekend together at these sales. We compare notes, share ideas, and reconnect. My site on the Cannon River Clay Tour is hosted by Colleen Riley and Donovan Palmquist. Colleen and Donovan are wonderful hosts and have a wealth of experience to share. The Front Yard Pottery Sale is hosted by Tom and Maggie Jaszczak at their studio/home near Shafer, Minnesota. The sale takes place in coordination with Peter Jadoonath’s Back Yard Pottery Sale, which is just a few miles away. Over a few summers, Tom and Peter built a ball field on Peter’s property. Now, on the Friday evening of the two sales, we play each other in an intense game of whiffle ball. Teams are made up of guest potters, our kids, and friends and family from the community who have come to help with the sale. Last year our team, the North Shafer Night Crawlers, beat Peter’s team, the South Shafer Deer Ticks, 22–19. You’ll be happy to know that this year the returning champions won again,
30–25.
Most Important Lesson
One of the important lessons I’ve learned as a working artist is related to the importance of leaving empty spaces in the work. This is an emptiness that should leave the user wanting, places for food and drink, for flowers. These are places of desire.
www.samuel-johnson.com
Instagram: @samueljohnsonpottery
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