“To be a teacher is my greatest work of art”
( Joseph Beuys )
As an artist, educator and scholar of Ceramics and its history, I reflect on the media as a uniquely potent teaching tool. Ceramics is both welcoming and ruthless, it is an entryway to creativity, but also a tremendously complicated science. Practitioners in ceramics know all too well the disappointment that comes from a kiln, where despite all of our best efforts, the process has decided to pursue a different outcome. If failure is one of the best ways to build new cognitive skills, then ceramics has a uniquely potent role to play. The medium is collaborative, relying on many to make the work happen. It requires a willingness to work together, to accomplish what could not be created alone. Ceramics, despite some of its canonical mythology from the 20th century, is not a solo pursuit. The analogy is clear, that resilience and curiosity, careful study and play, efforts that sometimes seem diametrically opposed, all combine to create new understanding, growth and change.
The Ceramics program at MICA is many things, becoming itself again and again, both as a new self and as a constant. As its communities change through generations of students, coming and going, the space becomes new as each student enters and finds their place. The class of 2024 then is part of a cycle, but also a crowning glory all its own. Young artists, in this case those that started their time at MICA online during the remote days of the pandemic, leave now having changed the department for the better. They are fundamentally present but also with space for the next group to fill.
The Ceramics program at MICA is distinct I think, and characterized by its intent to be a space for all artists to find their own voice in clay. The program is not known for a “type” of work, but instead for the way in which it is defined and changed by the artists working within it. It is a space, a collection of people, pushing and pulling their way through form making in the most basic as well as profound ways (often these two somehow overlap).
In the pages to follow, Rebecca Chappell, long time beloved faculty at MICA will share some thoughts about the work of art making. The class of 2024, 10 voices strong is presented in all that they are. Each one, having sought out something new, something true, through struggles and support, a particular point of view, one that is both stunning its its individual perspective and well as cunning its it broad use of this dynamic material.
Their work is a constant reminder to Make Good Art!
It has been a pleasure,
David S. East Chair: Ceramics Department
Maryland Institute College of Art
I’m not great at writing and using eloquent vocabulary, but I am good at telling the truth as I experience it, and that is what I will try to do here as best as I can for you all. As visual artists we translate those thoughts not into words, sentences, and paragraphs(thank god!) but into objects, images, and experiences… a visual vocabulary where words are permitted but are not necessarily needed. Each of you have your own wonderfully different visual dialect expressed through the medium of clay. I love the idea and image of working hands…of which clay is perfectly suited. Clay records everything, every touch, pinch, pull, the history is built right into the object. Through fire clay is transformed into a permanent ceramic record of all the working hands of the past.
I have been so anxious as to what to write for this essay…I asked around a bit and someone said “give us some advice!” and I thought “Oh god, I don’t even know how I ended up where i’m standing most days” I’ve been thinking about it quite a bit…what advice would i give each of you as newly graduating ceramics majors. I’m pretty sure there’s not a single one size fits all answer but if I had to choose I would say Never stop making, keep your hands moving somehow, even if you’re unable to use clay for a while, keep your hands working. I remember one of my undergraduate teachers, Judith Salomon telling me when I was a senior about to go out into the world, “Rebecca you can get a lot done in 1 hour in the studio” and I thought she was crazy. Now years later I’ve found that you can in fact get a lot done in 1 hour in the studio. Ha! You fit in studio time as you can, when you can, and sometimes it just doesn’t work out…for days, months, even years. I’m here to tell you that it’s ok and it happens, life will show up as it does and take center stage at times, but never stop making, keep your working hands moving.
It has been such a joy to watch you all develop in the studio as individual artists while at the same time come together as a strong community of studio mates. I’ve had the opportunity to work with several of you as students in Intro to the Wheel and/or Advanced Wheel, others in a more casual “you’re around, I’m around” studio relationship. You all invited me to participate in your final critiques last fall semester which offered me a more in depth understanding of what each of you were working on in the studio. I have been close enough to observe and watch as your ideas develop. It has been a true joy and I am so grateful to have been invited into your studio community.
It was so exciting for me to see everyone kick in to “make it” mode the last couple months leading up to thesis shows. It was like suddenly a switch got flipped and the energy changed. There was no more time to think, only time to do. Don’t think, do! Coming from Philadelphia to teach each week I started to see new and exciting things appear around the studio. Happy conjoined twins held together by pattern, ceramic shoes shiny and set in pairs, delicate woven fabric supported with rigid ceramic stone, otherworldly urchins and complex amorphous forms, an egg i could feasibly fit inside, large pinched cylinders living in the grass behind studio, to name just a few.
Doubt can be such an essential but also hindering part of the creative process. It can constructively aid in the questioning of ideas and build momentum yet it can also paralyze all decision making and stop you in your tracks. I say doubt yourself but do it anyway, you can decide later if it is an idea worth exploring. Follow the spark in your brain that excites your curiosity and wonder even if you can’t explain why…it is never wrong.
Rebecca Chappell
FEATURED ARTISTS
ANA MARIA MIHAI
The artist was born in Louisiana, U.S.A. and lived in Western New York from the ages two to eighteen. The artist is the firstgeneration Romanian-American of their family; the artist’s parents and older brother immigrated to the U.S.A. three years before the artist was born. The artist has lived traveling back and forth from Romania to the U.S.A., and has always felt like an alien in both places. The artist has led two lives in two languages, which only recently had begun to feel like one life. I am the artist. My name is Ana Maria Mihai.
AVA DRURY
Ava Drury, originating from Washington D.C. and currently situated in Baltimore, Maryland, is a ceramic artist who delves into the intricate nuances of female existence. Her work serves as a visual narrative, blending personal experiences and broader societal themes. With porcelain as her medium, Drury endeavors to transmute the negative emotions prevalent among contemporary women –encompassing anger, hopelessness, and dread – into tangible expressions of resilience and beauty. Her creations offer a profound exploration of the human condition, inviting viewers to engage in introspection and find humor amidst life’s complexities.
ELAINE ADAMS
Lucas’ work examines queer value systems through materiality, adornment, and archival practices. Considering the items we hold close, Lucas’ sculptures explore the ways that sentimentality, honor, desire, or aspiration can redefine purpose and value; drawing attention to objects which hold worth beyond their practical function. Abandoning practicality and function as markers for worth can be the foundation of redefinition, a school of thought which extends beyond objecthood.
Pulling from personal experiences of girlhood, object collection, personal surroundings and playing pretend, Lucas’ sculptures utilize craft and fabrication in the context of a feminist visual language of sentimentality and fantasy to accentuate the value of the ordinary, rundown, tacky, and cheap. Within her work, adornment and collection act as tools of independence and celebration, whether that be in relation to the object or the body.
Sample Tiles
Diane On A Saturday Ceramic Red Heels (stoneware, glaze), Cement, Diamond Wire, Wood, Red Rose (found and fake)
4’ x 6’ x 3’
2024
GAEUN KIM
Dear Foxtail and Cement,
I write a love letter for the things that no longer have addresses. The things that have expiration dates: the parking lot cement block that you scraped your knees on, the apartment windows that you watched the tofu-truck man every Wednesday afternoon, and the many car conversations that your parents had while you were pretending to be asleep in the back seat.
For I long and hold onto the things I can’t access once they expire, I sit with these objects here. The aftermath. The concrete ruins. The concrete memories. Tracing and mending the cracks and crumbs of the things that are destined to be demolished, to be sterilized, and to be replaced.
In hopes of giving it the caring gaze it deserved once more.
Love, Gaeun 2024
HAVI PETERSON
My work reflects an ever-evolving divine identity within & beyond the visual language of the trans psyche, and appeals to the insatiable & innately human appetite for re-invention.
This menagerie includes small and large-scale beings: smallness embodies intimacy, while largeness demands attention, taking up space in ways often denied to me. This dichotomy of scale manipulates masculine and feminine associations, as I am both.
Through my work, I construct value. I cultivate preciousness in relation to transgender identity and celebrate drag as a vehicle for metamorphosis and self-determination. I am uninterested in being tolerated or even accepted; instead, I choose to celebrate myself, my community, and anyone who sees themselves in what I create.
Divination Egg ( Ovomanteia )
Stoneware, Earthenware, Glaze, Lampshades, Cone 6 fired stoneware, epoxy, acrylic paint, gold & aluminum leaf, glass beads, anglaspel, stained glass, music box, candle, 3’9” x 2’3” x 2’3” 2024
One primary function of my work is to free itself from “function”, as I do not “function” in the “useful” way this world expects of me. I delight in pseudo-functions of “non-useful” objects like trinkets, vases, music boxes, and carnival rides. I savor the mechanics of excess, as the “unnecessary” connects to maximalism and extravagance, drama and drag.
Throughout my own metamorphosis, I have been the “egg” (queer slang for one who hasn’t yet realized their trans identity), the “unsightly” larva, its chrysalis, and emergence as something – like a butterfly – attractive to some, repulsive to others, and to many, oftentimes, both.
Every stage of this transformation is astronomically precious.
By creating things I deem precious, I define myself and others as precious, too.
I dream of love, divinity, transsexual expression, sexuality, and the constant, sublime evolution of being. I re-contextualize, elevate and reclaim LGBTQ cliches like the trans “butterfly” metaphor. I seek to capture the moment moth and flame collide, fuse, ignite and transform into something new and exciting – something greater than the sum of their parts.
Caterpillar
Stoneware, Stained Glass (found broken glass bottles), Lights
10.5” x 21” x 22”
2024
Look, I caught a star for you
Cone 6 porcelain with clear glaze, underglaze; pearlescent, gold & platinum lusters, music box
16” x 17” x 5.5”
2023
The God-Tooth That Chews My Love for You
