My first experience with clay was taking an intro wheel class at Dan Veto’s studio in the Southside. After four weeks at his pace, I realized that I needed my own place to experiment and play. This was around the same time I started at the Art Institute and was amazed when I found they had their own studio. It was modest to say the least, there were only eight wheels, two electric kilns, they bought their glazes and fired to cone 6 oxidation, but it was at this time, that I found a real love for wheel throwing and started to spend a lot (maybe too much) of time in the studio trying to get better. Through the mentoring of Eric Hahn, I started to develop my own style and really began asking poignant questions about my work and the craft, these questions have structured my personal philosophy about ceramics, Craft for craft’s sake. I try to incorporate my years of experience as an industrial designer into what I make and desire the impact of function to be subtlety apparent, to quote a professor “…you don’t want to hit them in the face with a 2×4, but when they use it, it has to make sense.” With design engrained through school and art experienced through hobby, I found a medium that necessitates both to be successful in the field.
After graduating from the Art Institute I was a bit at a loss since the AIP studio was all I ever knew. Fortunately the semester before I graduated, Justin Rothshank had come to our school to do a demonstration on decals and to talk a little about Union Project. I reached out to see if there was space at the studio and found an environment that was willing to accommodate any level potter. It was what I was looking for as Union Project encouraged experimentation and exploration. Working alongside potter’s at a much higher level then myself, I soon developed a keen eye to what was important in functional work and in part represents much of what I love about the space. It is an area where you are able to work at your own pace and to glean from others what interests you. On top of being able to develop and learn I have been able to give back to the community space by teaching classes and monitoring our open studio time. Alongside my ambitions the studio has grown by leaps and bounds and keeps my creative juices flowing, I can’t picture myself working anywhere else.
