What’s behind the art? Thought process
Every time a piece of pottery is made I get there thanks to some not so deep thinking. I like to think that my pieces are what I would consider spontaneous and unplanned. I divide my projects into two big categories: things I do because its fun, and things I do because I need to make a profit. This sounds pretty cold and unsentimental but stay with me.
Why not every piece is made for “fun”?
My ideal aesthetic is very different than what a potential customer would be interested into purchasing. When I do think about fun and pleasing to my eyes I come up with weird and elaborate projects that may take an extensive amount of time and material to accomplish. This combination result in a very heavy item that may be also very expensive. This is why I need to have a series of products that appeal also who don’t have hundreds to spend on a weird piece of art. I think this is the beauty of working with ceramics. The ability to be able to create some crazy and absolutely purposeless art, and with the same tools and materials we can builds dinnerware, utility items, everything we can think of truthfully.
How do I “get the the idea”.
Do I do precise sketches? Or complicate projects? The answer is absolutely not. I define my thought process as by prototypes. I like to do one of somethings and see how it is. This especially for items that I will be selling. I have a general idea that sparked from many possible sources, and from there I do a trial, sometimes it works. Some times it doesn’t. For example, the zodiac plates are a trial and error emblem. I originally made them with the slab roller, and realized that by the time I roll the clay shape them and come up with a result that wasn’t even that grate, I could have made many more with the potter’s wheel.
Other projects like the candle holder tree (I’m still working on it), or the Barcelona inspired fruit bowl, are something that totally came up from the ugliest sketch and just by “going for it”.
I can consider myself pretty naive in the sense of making projects and getting things done by the books.
I can most certainly say I don’t have a muse or a particular inspiration I like to follow. I think in this period I’m very inspired by Gothic and baroque decorations, I definitely wanna make more of those projects.
Overall what dives me into a direction or another when is to make a decision on what color to do something or what shape to make something else I let my intuition guide me. I wish more artist could just wonder free in their imagination. I always try to avoid to create items after a specific inspiration. The idea to keep my creativity “genuine” to what I like, rather than to what other people like is something I really care about.
I hope you all will appreciate my art and the ideas I bring to the table.