When I think about my own studio practice, I consider it as a space of becoming and unbecoming. It’s a place where I formulate questions, cultivate wonder, listen to materials, and think through making and process.
During my residency at Medalta International Artists in Residence program in Medicine Hat, Alberta, I’ve been inviting fellow artists in residence into conversation about their practices, their ways of being in the studio, their materials, their inner landscapes. These interviews are conversational, they aren’t polished artist statements, they’re snap shots of the in between state that artists often find themselves in- the ever changing studio rituals, rhythms, ruptures, that shape how and why we make work. I think we shape our ways of being in the studio, and in turn this shapes us.
The questions I ask are meant to be open ended. Some are direct and process oriented, and other are more personal and nuanced. Some aren’t really questions at all, but invitations to sit in a space of wonder together.
Some questions include:
why clay
who are you and why do you make
what questions are you living in right now
The goal of this project is to create a kind of archive of unfinished sentences, half-finished thoughts, studio revelations and complications, the language we use to describe ourselves, and the private and public wonderings that exist in a shared studio environment like a residency program. This archive will be a living love letter to process, to making, to clay, and to the artists who have been so generous in sharing their thoughts with me. For the duration of my residency, I will be sharing excerpts from these interviews alongside images that seem fitting. I hope that these interviews will offer up some delicious morsels for readers to chew on, to savour.
If you’re curious about how artists think, make, and exist in the world, I think these interviews will be right up your alley.
I would like to express my deep thanks and gratitude to those who have agreed to be interviewed by me. The generous and open spirits that I’ve met through the beginnings of this process have fueled me in ways I didn’t know to anticipate. Please note, these interviews are edited for clarity, and occasionally for some privacy purposes. Thank you for your understanding, as I navigate the nuances of the editing process.