Isaac Watson is a facilitator. He’s the guy who can see how to build the structure that others move about in order to connect, share, and learn from. Hailing from Portland, Isaac has been involved in the craft world as both a maker and as a founder of I Heart Art, a collaboration between Etsy, Pacific Northwest College of Art, Museum of Contemporary Craft and the Portland Etsy Team. He doesn’t accept the idea that some people are right-brained and others left-brained, and he expects a high bar to be set in terms of individuals doing more for themselves. All that being said, Isaac is also magnanimous, articulate, and open. Incidentally, I feel like I did so much talking because I see Isaac as having lots of answers for questions that I have had over the years. His latest project, Maker’s Nation, is set to give creative people an outlet to help give them business skills, connect with other makers, and a chance to not be so self-isolating…and hopefully in the future a health care plan. Keep an eye on him. If there’s an organization that he’s leading, you don’t need to join, but at least show up for the first few meetings.

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Maybe it’s that all good comedy comes from the same kind of place: a willingness to be honest but cloaking it in a jest. Realness and comedy, or knowing which side of the joke is up or if the thing that you’re seeing is a joke at all (Andy Kaufman). That’s where Clayton Bailey comes in. Clayton was this year’s NCECA fellow and gave the closing lecture. A California artist, Clayton’s worked in a way that both confirms his greatness as an artist and also pokes fun that the field he’s been involved in for 50 years. His humor is more tounge in cheek than ironic, dryer than silly. He operated as a teacher at the univeristy level for years and his work was based on pulling academia’s seriousness apart…or at least jabbing it for some life. Subversion can be taken any number of ways and Clayton’s version of it includes alter-egos, fake science, and asking his audience to join in on the bit (seriously, it’s just clay. It’s okay to make fun of how uptight we sometimes/always are about it. again, liberals usually don’t have a great sense of humor). His body of work is expansive and he’s always pushed himself to the next level of what the work should be or where the joke should go. When California ceramics is talked or written about Funk is always included. But the Funk movement operated in that kind of overly academic world that wasn’t taken far enough for Clayton. He has worked outside of the common eyesight of ceramics. He has worked backwards, in a way, creating his own world and inviting others to take a peek inside. Enjoy the conversation! I know I did.

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Chris Lyon is one half of the team who founded Mudshark Studios. In just a few years, they’ve gone from pouring molds in a garage to working in a huge semi-industrial space. Chris and I talk about how things started at Mudshark, their recent growth, and what the future might hold for his business. We also get into his upbringing, introduction to clay, and why working in the manner that he does fits him. Chris and his partner, Brett Binford, are helping to restart American industry in their own way and our conversation is a nice little window into the process. Enjoy!

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I met Matt Ziemke last year in Philadelphia. He is a guest artist-in-residence at The Clay Studio, and when we met he had just come out of graduate school. We actually sat down and talked on mic for a podcast interview, but decided to throw it out. It just didn’t work, didn’t feel right, and listening back to it confirmed my sense during the conversation. Part of that could’ve been my skill as a host/interviewer, the time of day, the environment, but I felt that Matt might’ve been in a head space that was mostly taken up with working his way out of the post-graduate school fog that some of us have gone through. He came to visit Portland back in January, and we talked about that time when working is just about getting oneself through a stage of life, his stance on being political within his work, and the water fight that takes place in the mid-West and mountain states. Enjoy!

Victoria Christen is a Portland, OR potter and a friend. We had a great talk back in December at Vic’s home and we covered quite a bit of material. She took a somewhat indirect road to making pots and being a potter, which we get into. She had an idyllic childhood in Montana and was raised in an environment of making, creating, and exploring.  Her work reflects her upbringing, and in Victoria’s own words: I come from a tradition of seamstresses. As a young girl, my grandmother designed and sewed clothing for families at neighboring homesteads. My grandmother’s skills passed to my mother, who sewed all our family clothes, and then to myself. As a ceramic artist, my process is not so different than that of my mother and grandmother. Like them, I transform my ideas into patterns cutting, folding, and joining various pieces to create a physical object. Enjoy this episode, it’s a good one!

Jonescast #26

Ginger Lukas is an artist from the mid-West, by way of Baltimore, who I met briefly in Philadelphia at The Clay Studio while we crossed paths as resident artists. She has since moved back to Wisconsin and has continued to make work and decorate cakes (we get into that during our conversation.) Ginger was generous enough to let me interrupt her while she set up a show here in Portland. We get into expectations, anxiety, and growing up with the internet. Enjoy!

Sunshine Cobb is a potter currently working at The Archie Bray Foundation in Helena, MT. She seemed to appear out of nowhere (maybe it just seemed that way from my perspective) and was on magazines, in galleries, and presenting workshops. I met Sunshine at Arrowmont for Utilitarian Clay back in September and I found her sweet, smart, easy to talk to, and focused like a laser. We talk about her beginnings in ceramics, establishing a career and a life and the balance between the two, and the reality of limits. I really enjoyed our conversation and I look forward to seeing her work move forward in the future.  Listen to the podcast here. Enjoy!

I met Amy Halko in Dallas, TX back in 2005. She has since moved to Northern California where she lives and makes her work. Amy is a founding member of the Dallas Pottery Invitational and shows work nationally. We were able to catch up recently in San Francisco and we talked about boredom, drive, and isolation, among other things.

Podcast #23

Deborah Horrell is a Portland based glass artist. She hosted me at her studio and our conversation revolved around her beginnings as a ceramic artist and the move she made to glass. We also talked at length about the importance of grief as a catalyst in her work. She was as open and articulate about her experiences as an artist and as a person on this earth as anyone else I’ve ever had the pleasure of talking to. The conversation we had is one of my favorites. If you get the chance to see her work in person, go.

Deborah received her MFA from the University of Washington in 1979. After working as a ceramist for many years, Horrell participated in the Pilchuck Glass School’s visiting artist program in 1994. A residency at the Bullseye Factory followed in 1996 permanently changing the trajectory of her career. The artist has shown her work, both ceramic and glass, in museums and galleries throughout the country.

Podcast #22

Mary Barringer received a BA in art from Bennington College, apprenticed with Michael Frimkess, and has been a studio artist since 1973, making both sculpture and functional pottery. Her work has been exhibited internationally, most recently at AKAR (Iowa City), the Signature Shop (Atlanta), and at the World Ceramics Expo in Korea. She has taught at numerous art centers and universities including Ohio University, the Boston Museum School, and Penland School of Crafts. In addition to her studio work she has written and lectured on ceramic history, and was named editor of Studio Potter journal in 2003. She lives in Shelburne Falls, MA.