Dan Schmitt Ceramics

Secret of Success in Creative Work

2012-02-27T19:02:00.000-08:00

Here's a great video clip by Ira Glass on how to succeed in any creative endeavor--a must see!!!

Ira Glass on Storytelling from David Shiyang Liu on Vimeo.

New Jars Underway

2012-01-12T18:52:00.000-08:00

Over the past month I've spent a lot of time in the studio working on some new stoneware pieces. I plan to also translate some of these forms into the terra cotta work I have been making.

Next up is mixing up some glazes and getting some firings done to see how these forms look once they are glazed. I'll keep posting works in progress as well as finished pieces once they are fired--so stay tuned!

New Functional Pots

2011-12-01T18:52:00.000-08:00

I've recently had a strong desire to get back in the studio and make some functional work. I'm making work in both high fire stoneware--white body--that I'll fire in reduction and some low fire terra cotta. Here's a preview of some new bowl prototypes--first batch got trimmed tonight with another dozen along the way.

Collecting Stories

2011-11-04T11:19:00.000-07:00

This link isn't so much ceramics related but it's a pretty amazing project by Jonathan Harris.

"Jonathan Harris wants to make sense of the emotional world of the Web. With deep compassion for the human condition, his projects troll the Internet to find out what we're all feeling and looking for."

Check out this amazing TED talk here.

Workmanship of Risk

2011-10-20T11:10:00.000-07:00

I've recently come across the writings of David Pye. Pye was an English woodworker and writer about the crafts. The following quote is from his The Nature and Art of Workmanship.

David Pye Workmanship of Risk "If I must ascribe a meaning to the word craftsmanship, I shall say as a first approximation that it means simply workmanship using any kind of technique or apparatus, in which the quality of the result is not predetermined, but depends on the judgment, dexterity and care which the maker exercises as he works. The essential idea is that the quality of the result is continually at risk during the process of making; and so I shall call this kind of workmanship 'The workmanship of risk': an uncouth phrase, but at least descriptive.”

Pye talks about two kinds of workmanship--workmanship of risk and workmanship of certainty. The former is one in which a result is dependent on the skill and knowledge of the crafter. The latter makes use of devices such as jigs, guides, fixtures etc to attain a repeatable and exact result. A comparison would be throwing a pot (workmanship of risk) vs slip casting a pot (workmanship of certainty).

Defining Student Success

2011-09-26T06:54:00.000-07:00

Last week I attended our school's in-service. It had all the usual trimmings of the latest educational catch phrases, pictures of new construction, pictures of donors writing checks, and a lot of talk about student success. I've always wondered how we define success, much less a successful student? Is it by GPA? By the number or graduating students?

A year and a half ago I wanted to learn how to weld and signed up for a sculpture/metal working/welding class at my local community college. I sat next to a pretty rough looking character, I'll call him Greg, who was meeting his arts and letters requirements with this class but was learning the construction trade. Greg carried a small metal coffee can filled with tobacco that he used to roll his own cigarettes with and took ample smoke breaks with the other students. He wasn't exactly the epitome of healthy living.

Throughout the quarter we chatted frequently and helped each other with welding projects and lifting heavy pieces of "art" which we had created. He seemed more and more enamored with art as the term progressed. As we got to know each other a little more he expressed fascination about my athletic endeavors in triathlon but I took it more as someone being piqued about a foreign culture than as someone actually wanting to try one. Later that quarter he gave up smoking and mentioned he had started running a little bit.

This past summer I ran into Greg again at the extension campus where I teach. He was looking pretty fit and healthy--he mentioned he was now biking to school which was several miles away. He came up to me beaming and mentioned how that art class and teacher had completely changed his life. Greg was now graduating with a 3.9 GPA, found a passion in life, and was transferring to a four year university to study painting. He said "It's hard to believe several years ago I was a homeless junkie!" To me this is a true success story.

Influences, Intrepretations, and Traditions from Asian Ceramics

2011-09-19T05:30:00.000-07:00

Several years ago I curated an exhibit looking at how Asian ceramics has influenced American ceramics from different perspectives. Below is the curators statement I wrote which I recently found again and still feel is relevant to my own work and that of others. You can find images from the exhibit at www.wlotus.com under prior shows.

The initial query was “What does it mean to be an American potter making pots that have been strongly influenced by foreign cultures? Am I consciously referencing that culture or tradition, or am I reinterpreting that tradition from an American viewpoint?” I selected these potters for the show because I felt each has been strongly influenced in some way by an Asian tradition, how they have been influenced is unique, and the results have been expressed in different ways and to differing degrees.

Without a doubt Asian ceramic traditions have had an enormous impact on the aesthetics of both American and European studio ceramics. Asian influences have played a dominant part from the beginning of the studio pottery movement, little more than half a century ago, being strongly fostered through the writings of Bernard Leach.

Pottery traditions have spanned the globe and virtually every culture. Pottery has been integrated into almost every culture’s way of life through the types of foods that are consumed, beverages drunk, and rituals practiced. Ceramics from certain regions or cultures became synonymous with their origins, such as porcelain being commonly referred to as China. These provincial aesthetics often became coveted by other cultures through exploration and import. The recipient cultures’ artists attempted to reproduce these coveted pieces, but often times lacked the appropriate materials and methods. This resulted in similar pieces, but not exact duplicates—cousins more than identical twins. These new works have on occasion become part of their adopted culture. An example is English Bone China—Europe’s attempts at reproducing the white, translucent, and highly durable properties of porcelain imported from China.

What makes these cultural reinterpretations of ceramics fascinating is how these pieces are assimilated into their new culture. As with languages during translation, subtle meanings can sometimes be lost and words can take on new meanings. Additionally, as anyone who is bilingual or has studied a foreign language for some time knows, some words have subtleties that are impossible to translate exactly, and therefore these words are sometimes directly adopted into a culture.

In many ways the American studio pottery movement has been built on influence and interpretations from Asian traditions. What makes the best of this pottery uniquely American is that it is not a direct attempt at copying historical works but rather an assimilation of historical works, ideas, and interpretations that have now become part of the American ceramic vocabulary.

Just Do It!

2011-09-16T07:30:00.000-07:00

We used this Pecha Kucha presentation by David Pollard for our Pecha Kucha Night in Eugene. I think it's inspirational and speaks to just doing what you feel passionate about! Check it out!!

New Work Up on Website

2011-09-14T12:33:00.000-07:00

Here's a couple images of some new work. See more at www.danschmitt.com

Modern Pots?

2011-09-08T10:26:00.001-07:00

The other day I stumbled upon the website Modern Pots--www.modernpots.com. It’s a beautiful website with some fantastic pottery and in-depth information on the different potters that they carry. Modern Pots is part of Goldmark’s Gallery located in England. The potters they carry are all from the United Kingdom with the exception of one from Mashiko, Japan and are all very prominent makers and well-respected artists/craftsman in their own right.

What struck me as quirky though is the titled for the website: Modern Pots. All of these potters make anything but modern pots. I don’t mean this as a pejorative but the title seems so ill fitting I just wonder about why it was chosen. None of the pottery featured fits the definition of “modern” either as a noun: A person who advocates or practices a departure from traditional styles or values; or in relation to its use in describing modern art.

All of the potters from the UK work in what I would describe as a Neo-Leachean aesthetic and approach. The work that they make utilizes traditional forms and shapes all of which are familiar domestic objects--cups, bowls, plates, platters, pouring vessels, vases, and jars. None of the forms that these potters employ is a reinvention or radical re-design of any of the aforementioned archetype pottery forms. The surface treatment of these pieces is traditional in its decoration, glazing, and firing, utilizing centuries old technologies and methods. The manner in which these potters work is also very traditional and it seems to be embracing a lifestyle choice harkening back to the quixotic passages found in Bernard Leach’s A Potter’s Book. So why the title Modern Pots?!

Here I think is the rub, anytime the word traditional is used in describing art we see it as regressive and not contemporary. This has been the bane of the crafts and people working in traditional craft materials and methods for decades. Potters are seen as those artists who have their heads in the sand and yearn for simpler times; more likely to be at home at a renaissance fair than an urban art gallery. Those in the crafts want to be seen as contemporary artists pushing the envelope of their field, being forward thinkers, part of the avant-garde, but it seems to be cutting off their nose to spite their face. By working in traditional materials, traditional processes, and working in traditional ways but denying that that is what is being done is purely ridiculous.

Tradition occupies a funny role in art and craft. On the one hand there are traditions of process, traditional methods and practices of making, and historical traditions in regards to typologies of work. Tradition is what artists look to for relating their work to what came before either by embracing it or rejecting it. The word "tradition" derives from the Latin tradere or traderer literally meaning to transmit, to hand over, to give for safekeeping. In the fine arts, and in the last half century in the crafts, there is a constant search for the “new now” and anything that seems to be dated is exactly that, dated. Never-the-less tradition is a necessary anchoring point for defining and placing ones work. If work has no reference to a tradition, whether embracing it or rejecting it, it appears lost and out of context. Tradition is a thread that ties work to a context and places it in a continuum without being in a vacuum.

In our everyday life traditions give us many things. Traditions provide comfort, ritual, a sense of connection with place, kinship, and family, traditions give us a sense of self and who we are, they reaffirm this through objects and rituals of practice. While traditions tend to ground us to the past the reason they are traditions is that they allow us to have a sense of connection and belonging. As we try to define ourselves as individuals, traditions are one of the things we reject or embrace, we either separate ourselves from that part of the world and thereby redefine our beliefs, or we ground ourselves more firmly in them.

Rather than rejecting traditions outright as being dated and passé we should carefully examine our traditions and embrace our ties to them and how they have and can evolve to be relevant to our current place in history. It's easy to slap on the word modern to anything somehow qualifying it as contemporary and relevant but it has now become so cliché that we have to call this tradition into question.

What's your major?

2011-09-07T05:15:00.000-07:00

With school getting ready to start again soon I've been thinking a lot about education and careers. One of the first questions every student asks when meeting someone new on campus is "What's your major?" When the other person replies "I'm an art major" usually the next question is "What are you going to do with that?"

With our current economy it seems that the currency that is in the highest demand is innovation. Innovative new ideas is what drives our economy, builds jobs, and keeps us in the game. Ask most employers what they are seeking in an employee and beyond the basic requirements of showing up and working hard they'll tell you they want someone who is creative, can think for themselves, has insights that are unique, is a good problem solver, and has a diversity of skills. To me this is describing an art major.

Mistakes Are Made

2011-09-06T11:31:00.000-07:00

Several years ago Paul Mathieu gave a talk at the University of Oregon and while talking about his process he said "Failure is part of the ceramic process." I thought this was an apt description of ceramics and some of the frustrations that can be encountered in working with clay.

I often mention this quote to my beginning students when they are disappointed by a cracked piece or mishap that occurred during a firing. I also tell them you have to make a lot of bad art to make good art. These things are easy to say and to tell your students but sometimes hard to apply to your own work and practice.

As a long time practitioner in ceramics I desperately try to avoid disappointment but also realize that I need to take risks in order to push my work to make it better. There's no greater disappointment for a potter than opening a kiln to complete failure. Weeks, sometimes months of work heading nowhere but to the shard pile. While the initial failure is hard to take after sometime I realize that if everything turned out I wouldn't be pushing myself to produce better work. I think here is where the greater challenge lies for professional artists. It's easy to stick with what you know and what you know will be successful. Galleries and clients want what they've seen and it's easy to start making product over art--you're rewarded by success, by money, and by predictability. Unfortunately these are directly opposed to getting innovative, fresh, and unpredictable results.

Oregon Quarterly article

2011-09-05T07:41:00.000-07:00

For the past two years a friend, Garron Hale, and I have been putting on Pecha Kucha Night here in Eugene. You might be asking, "What is Pecha Kucha? And how do you say that again?" PechaKucha Night was devised in Tokyo in February 2003 as an event for young designers to meet, network, and show their work in public.
It has turned into a massive celebration, with events happening in hundreds of cities around the world, inspiring creatives worldwide. Drawing its name from the Japanese term for the sound of "chit chat", it rests on a presentation format that is based on a simple idea: 20 images x 20 seconds. It's a format that makes presentations concise, and keeps things moving at a rapid pace.

A month ago we sat down with Jim McChesney from the Oregon Quarterly who interviewed Garron and me about Pecha Kucha and our development of Pecha Kucha in Eugene.

Here's a link to the article: http://www.oregonquarterly.com/autumn2011/upfront.php#pecha

Cleaning House

2011-08-31T10:00:00.000-07:00

Over the past week I've been doing my quarterly purge--usually coincides with the end of the school term. I usually try and organize my office/files, studio, and house in general, to get ready for a new work cycle/academic term. I decided to go through all my slides and digitize any I wanted and discard the rest. Going through past work is always interesting to see where I've been and how work that seems completely unrelated to what I'm currently working on re-emerges in some unique aspect. Here's a couple images of some older work--mostly early grad school stuff.

Making a living from my hobbies

2011-08-08T15:24:00.000-07:00

Here's a great NY Times article I recently dug up while cleaning out my files. It's encouraging and inspiring! Frank Hyman discusses how he has supported himself and made a living doing the things he loves. At a time where a college degree does little more than get you a job at Starbucks, it's inspiring to hear about those creating their own careers with their hobbies.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/09/jobs/09pre.html

Brad Mildrexler Studio Visit

2011-06-27T19:24:00.000-07:00

I interviewed Brad Mildrexler in September of 2010 and had initially sent this article in for publication. Obviously my first pick didn't take and rather than chasing around different publications hoping one would pick it up I decided why not publish it myself--that's what a blog is for right?! So while the number of readers is a lot smaller, hopefully you will send the link on to those who you think might be interested. And finally, thanks to Brad for letting me drop in and see your studio and talk to you about your work!

Breaking conventions can be a cliché in describing art and artists but that is exactly what Brad Mildrexler does both in his approach and in his process to making art. I first discovered Mildrexler’s work at the Oregon Potters Association show in 2005, which is held every spring in Portland, Oregon. He had a small booth set up with several of his clay sculptures; large thick slabs of clay, some up to six inches thick, cracked textured surfaces that were slathered with glaze, some weighing as much as forty pounds.

My first impression was a visceral response of all the things I love about clay as a material—its earthiness and ability to transform from a plastic material that can record the subtlety of a fingerprint to a stone like mass that appears as if it was formed by millions of years of weathering decay. Mildrexler’s work captures the materiality of the ceramic medium unapologetically—its plasticity, its ability to be molded and sculpted through touch and the forces of gravity, and its ability to have its shape frozen by fire; his work embraces the happenstance of ceramic materials and the surfaces created by melting different elements of clay and glaze through fire to create richly textured and painterly surfaces that appear both natural and man made. His work struck me both for its unorthodox approach and for its lavish and rich textures that embrace everything ceramics can be.

When I asked him about how he started in clay he brought up a story from his childhood “I’ve always felt that my grade school days of playing in the woods with my brothers building clay tunnels or forts had a long lasting affect on my approach to clay work. The pure joy of creating and experimenting is a driving force and motivation for me.” Mildrexler’s approach is as much alchemy as it is science. He has a handful of glazes he has formulated and continues to work with but he also experiments with found natural materials trying them out at various temperatures and seeing how they react, bucking the more conventional approach of reformulating a material to work at a standard temperature range.

Not only is Mildrexler’s work unconventional, but so is the path that led him to where he is today as an artist. Initially having his interest in clay piqued in high school, he continued his work in ceramics while pursuing a degree in sociology from Portland State University. The day after graduating from college, Mildrexler set out hitch hiking around the globe for two years traveling through South America, Europe, Africa, and Asia. He spent time working odd jobs and continued to follow his passion for clay, making work where he could along his travels. He spent time in Japan looking at pottery and pursuing his interest in wood fired ceramics. Upon his return to the United States he helped build several wood kilns in Oregon, including an anagama on his property just outside of Portland. Beginning in the early 80’s he started making wood fired pieces, mostly large wheel thrown jars that utilized their large surface areas to capture wood ash, which he pursued for over twenty years. In 2000, he moved from the country to live in the city of Portland, in a beautifully restored 1928 home in what has now become a coveted neighborhood in the Portland’s Laurelhurst district.

In his new urban location Mildrexler built a gas fired kiln and a studio in his backyard and has now turned to making mostly hand built sculptural pieces that resemble abstracted natural forms that he covers in several layers of slips and glazes and fires tumble stacked in his gas kiln, sometimes several times over, until he is satisfied with the surfaces. Watching Mildrexler work is often a shock to those who work in clay for his unabashed approach to handling the material and glaze. He primarily works with a commercially mixed sculpture body but will mix in stones, Styrofoam, wild clays, sand that he has dug up from a nearby beach, and broken glass. Many who watch him work are shocked seeing him reach into a plastic bag full of broken glass bottles barehanded that he then wedges directly into his clay. Commenting on his approach to his work he states, “I don’t look at other potters or sculptors for ideas. I look to nature for textures and shapes. I want the ‘feel’ of the natural world to flow out of the clay. When I get out to a nice place [in nature] I can bring home a little rock or sand or clay to melt onto a piece. That really brings back a memory of a place and connection to reality and makes it feel real.”

With his move to the city and firing in a gas kiln, Mildrexler’s work took a turn away from primarily thrown forms to hand built ones. Starting out by making mostly wall pieces that consisted of large thick slabs of clay with heavily textured surfaces, his work seemed to be that of a painter approaching clay; using the malleability of the material and fluidity of moving glaze to create lush relief like paintings. Presently, his work has become more three-dimensional, moving off the wall to the floor. His latest pieces consist of large monolithic forms resembling wheels or old millstones that are undergoing a transformation back to nature and larger abstract forms that appear like stones sliced out of a hillside. Mildrexler’s surfaces have a similarity to the earthiness of the late British ceramicist Ewan Henderson but his forms are less related to those of pottery than perhaps old tools from a by gone era. His work invokes a sense of geological time, of a primitive technology that has been realized and is now slowly returning back to its origins of the earth.

While he works in his studio almost everyday, Mildrexler makes his income through painting houses. “For me the idea of selling work to make a living requires too much time on promotion and sales. It becomes like a ‘regular’ job and the fun disappears. I like the freedom to make whatever I like without the customer in mind. House painting is how I pay the bills.” When prompted a little further on this notion he points out that many artists start to feel trapped with a body of work that becomes financially successful and a demand is created to keep reproducing the same pieces that sell rather than making work that may not always be successful but grows and embraces the struggle of pushing a new idea.

During the off season in the late Fall and the Winter he is able to spend most of his days working in his studio and during the summers he spends his evenings in his self described playground. “Working in my shop is my playground. I feel free to make what I like. I can explore and develop ideas without the pressure to make money. I do feel some pressure and responsibility to do my best but mostly I’m thankful to have a creative outlet that brings peace.”

At a time where many sculptors, particularly those who work with clay, dismiss materiality and process as almost getting in the way of their art, it is refreshing to see work like Mildrexlers that whole heartedly embraces a material and process unapologetically. In his best work Mildrexler is able to dismiss all the material hang-ups clay artists can have in a medium that often requires much attention to technique and process and is able to exploit these for work that fully realizes the expressive nature of ceramics as an artistic medium.

Brad Mildrexler's Portland studio and work

2011-06-27T19:14:00.001-07:00

New Work Up

2011-06-27T18:53:00.000-07:00

I just posted new work on my website--www.danschmitt.com. Here are a couple of the new pieces you can see.

Walter Benjamin Quote

2011-06-06T18:45:00.000-07:00

"Stories, mirrors of true experience, and crafted objects alike are solid, useful, unique. The aesthetics of the useful and unique story or the crafted pot could not be more removed from the attributes of cheap mass-reproduction, or from those of fine art. The story and the pot are formed by a life that has something to tell. Good stories relate a practical knowledge; good potters relate a wisdom based on praxis." Walter Benjamin: Traces of Craft

Great Video on Cups

2011-04-28T12:25:00.001-07:00

Here's a great video with Pete Pinnell discussing the role of the cup as an art object and object in general. Check it out.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=302550256698394321&hl=en#

Creative Process

2011-04-28T09:51:00.000-07:00

In design we talk a lot about the design process and creative process. It's actually something which I find quite fascinating and I'm always interested in how each person comes up with creative ideas. The other night I heard a great clip on Radio Lab about this very thing which you can find here.

I was thinking a lot about my own creative process for ceramics and if I even really have a "process" per se. My best advice to myself and to students is to make lots of work, look at lots of work (online, magazines, actual exhibits, historical pieces, other art besides ceramics), and don't judge your own work too quickly.

Usually I either go into the studio with a very specific notion of what I want to make in my head and see what happens or I have a vague idea of what I'm after but just need to actually work the idea out. This is an aspect of ceramics that really suits my personality and work habits. Unlike other materials, such as wood, where you definitely need a plan and dimensions ahead of time, ceramics, at least for me, allows for a lot of improvisation.

If you have time listen to the Radio Lab clip--I found it pretty interesting and maybe it really is just about catching your muse!

Images of Some New Work

2011-03-31T09:53:00.000-07:00

I had a chance over Spring break to shoot some new work just out of the kiln. Here are a few images. Be sure to check out my new website at www.danschmitt.com to see more.

Studio visit with Brad Mildrexler

2011-03-29T15:46:00.000-07:00

Last Fall I was up in Portland, Oregon, and paid a visit to one of my favorite local ceramic artists—Brad Mildrexler. I’m sending off an article I wrote about our visit and his work to a ceramic publication but here are a few teaser images. Hope you enjoy them!

Vintage Technology

2011-01-19T05:38:00.000-08:00

I'm currently working on a second bachelors degree in product design at the University of Oregon. I'm interested in our relationship to artifacts and the emotional affects we have to artifacts and material goods. Here's a great video of how kids interpret vintage technology--makes me feel old!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdSHeKfZG7c

Pecha Kucha Night # 5

2011-01-17T16:44:00.000-08:00

What is Pecha Kucha Night you might be asking? Pecha Kucha comes from Japanese for chit-chat. Pecha Kucha Night, or PKN, is a social event with a patented format. Each presenter, usually 20, but here in Eugene we do 8 to 10 presenters, can show 20 images/slides with 20 seconds per image, giving a total presentation time of 6 minutes and 40 seconds. The event began in Tokyo in 2003 as a way for artists, designers, architects, and other creatives to showcase their work in a dynamic and concise format.

Now on our 5th PKN here in Eugene we are excited to showcase some diverse and talented people January 27, at 7 p.m. at Davis' for any local folks reading this. A friend and I founded the event for the city of Eugene back in 2009 and it has been growing since our first one in September of 2009.

The PKN website also has around 200 clips from presenters all around the globe--worth checking them out!

www.pecha-kucha.org

Our website is: http://www.pecha-kucha.org/night/eugene/

NPR's "All Things Considered" did a nice feature on the founders several months ago:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130698873

Minimalism

2011-01-07T16:16:00.000-08:00

After a holiday in Hawaii and with it being that time for resolutions, I've decided to try and simplify my life; which isn't always as easy as one would like! Having just started teaching and going back to school this week I felt like my life went from normal to crazy in a days time!

I've always been attracted to simplicity both in lifestyle and in my ceramics practice. There's something about seeing what you can do with paired down materials or things--I've always felt that this is really where the creativity begins in making. My porcelain tableware developed out of this approach. When I was in grad school I decided to set strict parameters for myself and see what I could come up with. My parameters were that I would only use porcelain, a clear or white glaze, and would use four forms--the cup, bowl, vase, and tea pot. This body of work was something I was able to pursue for over a decade and I felt was quite successful on many levels.

Many potters/ceramic artists can become tool freaks and gadget hounds. Working in a very process based medium I think it's easy to become seduced by certain techniques or processes that can yield interesting and predictable results. Personally I find something liberating and very expressive about using mostly my hands with minimal tools to make my work--there's a certain directness and intimacy working this way. For me ceramics is unique in this regard in that it is a material that can be interacted with directly with ones body--you can touch it and form it and it can record the subtlety of a finger print; one doesn't need tools or such to manipulate clay with the exception I suppose of a kiln to fire it.

While stylistically my new terra cotta pieces are quite different from my previous work I see a continues thread in my approach. I feel I work with a fairly simple technique, my work eschews fussiness, and has a certain element of spontaneity to it. I've posted a couple images of my previous work for those who are not as familiar with it.

Images from White Lotus Show

2010-12-28T18:35:00.000-08:00

Here are some installation shots from the show I had at the White Lotus Gallery this December here in Eugene. This was my first time showing this new body of work. Thanks to all those who came out and to those of you who are taking home some new pots!