I rarely tire of reading about what inspires artists—specifically, why they create certain objects. I find these narratives deeply personal, self-aware, and often romantic. I want to know about the nuggets that gnaw at one’s inner intuition, until they ultimately grow into something substantive.
Years ago, we ran an article written by artist Catherine Satterlee. In that article, she described to readers how her interest in historic ceramics, a love of Japanese gardens, a photo of a Tokyo utility street cover, and a quirky mistake with her slab roller all converged and spurred her to create a ceramic bottle covered in flower appliqués and a thick green glaze. What I like about this is the confluence of interests; it’s not just making based on trends or sales; it is a synthesis of very personal passions about history, materials, and awareness of daily life. It makes her objects have more breadth and genuine uniqueness.
Susan Feagin, our cover artist, joins this issue with a story of how she developed her current style. Her decorative vessels are the result of a melding of influences: her love of clay; an interest in printmaking (1) and collage, which led her to create paper transfers (2) of relief-printed wallpaper, stationery, and sketchbook pages; her love of letter writing, which inspired her to screen print her own handwriting (3) onto clay surfaces; and a fascination with 18th-century Japanese Oribe ware.
Critics often say that nothing is new when it comes to art—it’s all recycled—but I’m hard-pressed to believe that when there are artists out there making work from such a unique synthesis of ideas. So, when Catherine approached us about doing another article, this time about where her ideas come from, I was thrilled to share it with readers. She writes about gathering photos of patterns and textures from daily life, travels, and the internet, then using them as motivation to develop ceramic surfaces.
Developing unique ceramic surfaces is what this issue is all about. In addition to Catherine’s motivational article and Susan’s multi-layered process, Heidi McKay Casto demos animal-inspired vessels with Pointillist-like surfaces; Lucy Be relies on raw clay and deep carving to create patterns on ornate forms; Turiya Gross employs traditional brushwork with minimal color on her functional bowls; Natalie Selleck taught herself how to marble her surfaces with bisque engobes; Nina Paulovskaya uses hard, craggily rocks to texture soft clay that ultimately forms simple tabletop jars; and we share an excerpt from Rhonda Willers’ popular book on terra sigillata about a technique combining multiple terra sigillatas and mark making.
I am sure that after reading this issue, you will have a synthesis of ideas to motivate you back into the studio. Happy making!
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I rarely tire of reading about what inspires artists—specifically, why they create certain objects. I find these narratives deeply personal, self-aware, and often romantic. I want to know about the nuggets that gnaw at one’s inner intuition, until they ultimately grow into something substantive.
Years ago, we ran an article written by artist Catherine Satterlee. In that article, she described to readers how her interest in historic ceramics, a love of Japanese gardens, a photo of a Tokyo utility street cover, and a quirky mistake with her slab roller all converged and spurred her to create a ceramic bottle covered in flower appliqués and a thick green glaze. What I like about this is the confluence of interests; it’s not just making based on trends or sales; it is a synthesis of very personal passions about history, materials, and awareness of daily life. It makes her objects have more breadth and genuine uniqueness.
Susan Feagin, our cover artist, joins this issue with a story of how she developed her current style. Her decorative vessels are the result of a melding of influences: her love of clay; an interest in printmaking (1) and collage, which led her to create paper transfers (2) of relief-printed wallpaper, stationery, and sketchbook pages; her love of letter writing, which inspired her to screen print her own handwriting (3) onto clay surfaces; and a fascination with 18th-century Japanese Oribe ware.
Critics often say that nothing is new when it comes to art—it’s all recycled—but I’m hard-pressed to believe that when there are artists out there making work from such a unique synthesis of ideas. So, when Catherine approached us about doing another article, this time about where her ideas come from, I was thrilled to share it with readers. She writes about gathering photos of patterns and textures from daily life, travels, and the internet, then using them as motivation to develop ceramic surfaces.
Developing unique ceramic surfaces is what this issue is all about. In addition to Catherine’s motivational article and Susan’s multi-layered process, Heidi McKay Casto demos animal-inspired vessels with Pointillist-like surfaces; Lucy Be relies on raw clay and deep carving to create patterns on ornate forms; Turiya Gross employs traditional brushwork with minimal color on her functional bowls; Natalie Selleck taught herself how to marble her surfaces with bisque engobes; Nina Paulovskaya uses hard, craggily rocks to texture soft clay that ultimately forms simple tabletop jars; and we share an excerpt from Rhonda Willers’ popular book on terra sigillata about a technique combining multiple terra sigillatas and mark making.
I am sure that after reading this issue, you will have a synthesis of ideas to motivate you back into the studio. Happy making!
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