Interview by Kara Larson

Photography provided by Katharine Eksuzian

Conducted in collaboration with American Craft Council

Happy Friday! (if that means anything anymore)

It’s the end of the week? It was just Monday! It’s all a blur, haha. I feel like March was the longest month ever, and now it’s May! How did that happen, ya know?

So where are you working right now?

I’m in Victoria, and my main studio is in Northern Clay Center, which is in Minneapolis.

How long have you been a part of Northern Clay?

I started there about 2014. I took a clay class there randomly, a beginner’s 101 class, and it felt like I finally found my passion. And it took off from there. I never worked with clay before that, and I took the class on a whim, and it hit hard for me.

Was this post-college?

So I did some business classes in college, but I never got a degree or did anything—I originally wanted to do culinary school, and my mother dissuaded me from that because it had no money involved in it—and of course now I do pottery, another very hard career, ha! But my family is very artsy, so I knew I needed hands-on work and something creative. I just never could find it until Northern Clay Center.

Some people are like myself where you had to fall into your passion—my brother went to art school at RISD, and was the big artist in the family and still does art too, but he was always questioning, “You didn’t go to school for it, you didn’t have any training.” And I think that actually kind of helped in my case that I didn’t have any boundaries or guidelines within the parameters of what a professor wants me to do. Because I hear that from other studio artists where you have to do certain tasks to fulfill your grade, and having no boundaries, no experience of classes or knowing what to do—I’m just experimenting the whole time I feel like that really has helped me. And that’s not going to help everybody, and I actually do wish I had more education, but it kind of freed me up to do what I want to do and find my own self in it, so it’s been a blessing in a way.

Do you feel like you’re able to explore at Northern Clay? Do you take classes?

Yes they have classes, but they also give you the opportunity to explore in that you can have partial shelf space, which makes it more accessible. Like, I’m in a shared studio, and just being able to explore the kilns, gas or electric, as well as the glaze chemistry room. It’s just so much fun there. And it’s truly a one of a kind place; there aren’t many spaces like it in the U.S. So it was luck to have that in Minneapolis.

You don’t currently have access to your studio then, right? How has that impacted your workflow and process?

Luckily I have started a home studio where I have a wheel, but that’s it right now. So I can do wet work. I received a visual arts grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board for 2020, and I was planning to get a kiln, a bisque kiln that’s like a pre-cook before I go to the high fire kiln at the Northern Clay Center. But I have no access to the shops to get my kiln, so I’m kind of at a standstill, but still doing all the wet work I can. So that’s been really nice to have that here at home. I’ve been conservative with my clay—I also can’t get any clay right now. I’m working slowly, but it’s made me more thoughtful. Every piece of mine has always been very thought out and intentional and unique, but even more so now because I have so little product to use. I’m being so careful with each piece. But I’m slowly replenishing my inventory, and my skill is improving too, so I don’t lose that connection to clay.

So, in a pre-COVID world, what would you be doing right now? Of course you would have gone to the American Craft Show a couple weeks ago.

Yeah, usually I’m coming off of a big high from that show, because it’s such a whirlwind. This would have been my third year in the Hip-Pop program, and then in 2021, I was going to do the big booth, and hopefully that will still happen in October. But the Hip-Pop program has been wonderful and it really helps an emerging artist.

And usually about this time I’m back in the studio after the ACC show hitting it hard and trying to replenish everything that sold. And I have been selling, but I usually get kind of wipes out at ACC. I almost sell all of my inventory there, so it gives me such a fight to get back in the studio and make and improve and challenge myself.

So I would have been doing that and working on the big project for the state arts board.

Can you share a bit about your grant project with the Minnesota State Arts Board?

It’s a visual arts grant and I’m working with the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum. I actually just got an encouraging update that the project has had a timeline extension. This enables me to stop worrying about how to finish work and how to have a public exhibition during COVID-19. I plan to take my time and make very thoughtful, complex pieces that reflect on nature therapy and how much it has helped and will help reduce stress. I am so thankful for this news and am looking forward to what new inspiration springs up during this difficult time. Some of my greatest pieces have come from mistakes/accidents and even though that is very scary, I welcome it. Something better and more meaningful always emerges from these learning experiences.

Has the pandemic changed the way you’re approaching the project?

It’s always been about nature for me, and it still will be, but it’s kind of shifting in my mind. So I’m actually kind of grateful for this lull period where I can’t do too much so then I can kind of contemplate it more. I see it continuing to explore nature and trees, but I think I also want to reflect on community as well, banding together, pulling together, maybe revising community in some way. I’m still thinking about it, and I’m reading about plants and different animals that do that same process of rejuvenation. So we’ll see.

It was going to be more of a sculptural exhibition, but still trying to figure out what to do because it’s weird to think of an exhibition that doesn’t have something related to the pandemic. It doesn’t have to be directly linked or overt, but how can you not have a reflection or thoughts on that in the work?

Yeah, this fell at a very weird time because we had just finished all the content for the upcoming issue back in January/February, but didn’t begun the design process until the beginning of the pandemic—so it broke up the production in a jarring way that feels like…oh should we revisit the stories, or how will we handle it? And I’m not sure how we are going to handle it just yet!

It’s just a bizarre time!

And it sounds like you’ve had a big disruption—there are other people I’ve talked to that still have access to their materials or full studio access.

Hopefully things will slowly open up so I can order materials again, but it’s hard to order big things and equipment, and I’d have to have an electrician come into the house, which still feels scary.

Beyond disruptions in process, where else have you felt a sense of loss in your practice?

A big one is just missing the clay center. We still kind of have a community within it at this point—we’re all connected by email and we’re going to do a zoom call to check-in, but even though I work from a home studio as well, I always knew that my community, my art community, is the Northern Clay Center. And not having that place, that’s kind of been big to realize that I really miss my people.

I think a lot of artists are perceived as introverted, or at least have some introverted tendencies or abilities to be able to be alone in your studio for 12 hours without speaking.

A lot of my studio mates say that about me! It’s funny because I’m completely not an introvert, but when I’m working on something very detailed and precise, I do feel like I have to be completely by myself and lost in my head. But I also need that feedback, interaction, and discussion—I just couldn’t live without it. Whenever I think about having a full home studio, I just think I’d still have to have community connection in some way.

I benefit so much from that balance, too. Actually having these conversations with makers has been really helpful for me.

I totally felt that when you emailed me! Like, “Oh, I would love to talk about this, or talk about anything!” ha.

The other huge thing I’m missing right now is not just the sales part of ACC, and not just hanging out with all the other artists, which is wonderful, but also connecting with businesses and galleries. That was a big deal for me, and every year I get more connected and get more references. So… I’m looking forward to October!

The networking that comes through the ACC show is incredible. I always tell my friends to do the Hip-Pop program at ACC. I had people telling me to do it for a while, and when I did it, I really did feel much more immersed and connected and get great feedback as well. So I’m a big proponent of that program. A lot of my customers right now are through ACC shows—that’s where they first saw it and met me.

It’s funny because when I was planning the direction for 2020, I was thinking it would include a lot more in-person events and real time community building, and very much in a 3D irl way.

And that’s so important for an artist too, exhibitions, galleries, shops, art fairs—that’s the main deal for an artist. I rely on my website and Instagram right now, which is really hard for me to convey my work on because it’s only viewing it on a device—it’s not the same experience. And it’s not the same as that in-person looking and touching and experiencing the object.

Pottery needs to be touched, and it’s a strange thing to think about that an object has so much feeling with it, but for me with pottery, you can feel the artist in it. You touch it and you know how they’ve touched it. It’s very tactile, so it’s like, how can we do this not in person?

Its tactility is more apparent than ever.

Exactly!

Switching gears to the environmental aspect of your work, I want to make sure we talk about how nature plays into the inspiration and execution of your work.

I take everything from nature—it’s my main source of inspiration. When I’m in a creative rut wondering what I’ll make next, I know that I just have to go outside. I go into the woods and start peering and poking around and looking deeply at the tiniest details. Slime molds have been a huge interest of mine lately. I like unusual things, or things that have meaning behind them.

Part of my project for the Minnesota State Arts Board was to work with the nature therapy head director at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum and to learn more about shinrin-yoku, which is forest bathing. For me, it’s about going out into nature and feeling more refreshed—it’s that good feeling, almost like a vacation feeling where you go back in and you’re revived in a way. So I love that feeling and I come back to the studio and try to recapture those moments and infuse that feeling into my work so that the next person who is going to look at it or touch it or own it is also possibly going to have that same feeling of hanging out in the woods.

As far as my studio practice, I try to be a very efficient creator. I’m always aware of what I’m putting out into the world and creating as little waste as possible, which helps maintain an environmentally conscious craft.

I am hoping that if anything comes out of this pandemic, maybe we’ll have this hope, this fresh awareness of climate change. My work has always been based on the idea of bringing awareness to our ecosystem and spreading calmness and peace. I try to depict nature cycles and how, even in inclement situations, nature always finds a way to grow again. In many devastating situations the new growth creates even healthier environments. I like thinking about this and relating it to our current situation. We are already becoming stronger, and I believe this will be an enduring response.

See more of Katharine’s work here: http://umamipottery.com/

Learn more about American Craft Council here: https://craftcouncil.org/

Katharine Eksuzian of Umami Pottery