Inspiration! It can be the muse that lets your mind run wild and your leads your hands to create with joy. It can knock you over, whisper in you ear or leave you high and dry. We’d like to know: What, if anything, do you consistently draw inspiration from?
Celeste: I am inspired by nature and by works created during the art nouveau movement.
Sally Anne: Food. Sometimes it’s what I’m hungry for or food I’ve been eating and I think: How would I serve this. And sometimes it’s just a need I have. I need plates or a butter dish. I’ll get on a kick and then walk away until I get excited about that form or idea again Nature. The clouds in the sky, bark on a tree, leaves, mountains, rocks, etc. I’m a big fan of seed pods. I like to keep track of the changing of the season’s via pods. Conversations/interactions with people. Sometimes things happen between me and someone else and I will put a response in clay. I’ll steal. Sometimes I see someone doing something or a piece in a shop and I think: I can do that better. And I’ll process it out in my head and do it.
And life in general.
Chris: The smell of the salt air as you approach the beach, orange blossoms in the morning or the innocence of the children at work
Evan: Nothing's consistent.
Is there anything in your life that always puts a creative thought in your head?
We’d love to hear your questions for the Covert Potters. Please leave a comment with any questions you may have and we will try to get them answered as quickly as possible! Thank you… read on
The opening of the show is coming up, save the date!! Saturday June 19. Covert Potters Chris McCormick, Sally Anne Stahl, Celeste Iida and Evan Vieser have all created works of art for this event. Hope you can make it!
I don’t know an artistic person that sticks to their medium solely. There is so much out there to be seen, worked with and known. We just have to ask: What other mediums do you work in?
Celeste: Food. Fabric. I used to sew all of my evening clothes until I met clay. Since meeting clay, my wardrobe has down graded to sweats and jeans but I don’t mind.
Evan: My art is mainly contained to clay but occasionally I'll paint and photograph roads.
Sally Anne: Glass. Just started to fuse, but I'd love to learn how to blow. I play with photography and yarn. I'd would love to learn how to weave.
Chris: I like to paint and sculpt though it has been a while. I have to say I am increasingly intrigued by and drawn to glass and am looking forward to taking some classes and “getting on the torch” as it were.
So what materials are making your heart sing and your hands move?We’d love to hear your questions for the Covert Potters. Please leave a comment below with any questions you may have and we will try to get them answered as quickly as possible! Thank you… read on.
With all the talk about National Security, let’s talk about personal insecurity.... Describe an insecurity you deal with in making your work?
Sally Anne: The idea of beauty. Is my idea acceptable to others? I know I shouldn't care, but I do...
Chris: Is it done? No, just a little more, CRAP! Always second guessing myself
Celeste: I am less anxious about the building process now that muscle retention is part of my being. I still have concerns about the glazing and the glaze firing but refuse to change to a different firing temperature.
What are the insecurities that you fine are running around your head when you are working on your art?
We’d love to hear your questions for the Covert Potters. Please leave a comment below with any questions you may have and we will try to get them answered as quickly as possible! Thank you… read on.
Who doesn’t want to think and plan about the future. We potters are in a long line to the past with the clay we use, the forms we make and the process we explore. But we do look forward to much. Today’s question: What do you look forward to about your pots?
Chris: Having the time to create more, to learn more and release that knowledge into the clay.
Evan: The ones that don’t make the cut and smashing them with a hammer.
Celeste: Getting them out of the kiln.
Sally Anne: Seeing something come out of the kiln and it’s better than I could have hoped. Especially from a wood firing and knowing that I made it – Pride.
You can’t tell me you don’t have hopes or thoughts about what you are doing. What do you look forward to?
We’d love to hear your questions for the Covert Potters. Please leave a comment with any questions you may have and we will try to get them answered as quickly as possible! Thank you… read on
Chris: Like many people/potters I collect. So I have all these tea bowls, mugs and tumblers that I use on a daily basis. I enjoy choosing which to use on a particular morning. It makes the morning routine a bit special. There's a tea bowl from Tom Coleman, a Birdie Boone and many others. And yes there is one of mine! These are some of them. This morning I enjoyed my Heidi Brandenburg!
