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#202 Exploring Graffiti-Inspired Pottery and AI Innovations with Tony Young
40 Plays2 years ago
In this fascinating episode of Shaping a Pottery, host Nic Torres chats with the talented Tony Young, whose graffiti-inspired pottery and innovative use of AI in ceramic art have garnered attention in Ceramics Monthly. Tony shares his journey from college to high school teacher and how his experiences and travels have shaped his unique Graffito style. Delve into Tony's creative process, learn about his techniques, and discover the role AI plays in generating new imagery for his work. Join Nic and Tony as they explore the captivating world of graffiti-inspired pottery and how Tony's passion for experimentation and rule-breaking has led to his success in the pottery world. You can learn more about Tony by checking out his Instagram @youngy_03
Top 3 Value Bombs:
1. Incorporating AI into Pottery: Tony Young shares how he uses AI to generate new imagery for his pottery, providing inspiration and speeding up the sketching process. By experimenting with AI, artists can discover new techniques and ideas to incorporate into their work.
2. Importance of Experimentation: Tony emphasizes the significance of trying new techniques and pushing the boundaries of artistic expression. By testing and evolving their work, artists can find their unique voice and improve their craft.
3. Learning from Others: Tony suggests that collecting other potters' work and observing their techniques can help artists refine their own skills. By learning from fellow artists and drawing inspiration from their work, potters can create better, more unique pottery.
and so much more
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Transcript
Free Pottery Themes by Nick Torres
00:00:00
Speaker
Hey, real quick before we get started, if you would like to find your own theme for your pottery so your voice really stands out and you're not getting bored with making the same thing over and over again, I put together 53 themes for you guys and it's completely free. All you have to do to get it is just go to shapingyourpottery.com forward slash 53 themes. That's shapingyourpottery.com forward slash 53 themes. I'll see you guys in there.
Interview with Tony Young on Graffito Style
00:00:31
Speaker
What is up, shaping nation? This is Nick Torres here. And on this episode of Shaping Your Pottery, I got to interview Tony Young. Tony makes some really incredible graffito style pottery. Tony has been featured in Ceramics Monthly. In this episode, you will learn how Tony makes his graffiti styled pottery. You'll also learn about how Tony is using AI to help him come up with new imagery for his pottery. Finally,
00:00:58
Speaker
You also learn about how Tony takes inspiration from his high school students and he applies it to his own work. Hope you guys enjoy this episode and I'll see you guys in there. If you love pottery and want to take your skills to the next level, you're in the right place. Find your own pottery style right here on Shaping Your Pottery with Nick Torres. Let's get started.
Collecting Pottery for Improvement
00:01:23
Speaker
Tony, welcome to Shaping Your Pottery and share with me what is something potters should be doing to make the best possible pottery they can.
00:01:31
Speaker
Yeah. I like that question. And I mean, obviously I think like one of the, the easy answers is you got to throw a lot. You got to glaze a lot. You've got to, you've got to work a lot. You've got to get your 10,000 hours in, but I was kind of thinking about it. And I think one of the big things that helped me specifically was I literally started collecting other Potter's work and being able to hold their work and see what I like and what I don't like. And you know, whether it's like the way my lip touches the rim of someone's cup and
00:01:59
Speaker
It feels good, or it doesn't, or how the handle feels. I know a couple of my friends' work I have that I love their handles. It's something to shoot for, I guess. It makes me more conscious of what I'm doing with my own work. That is very interesting. I've never heard that before to make the best possible pottery is to collect other people's work. I love that so much. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, man.
Tony's Journey into Ceramics
00:02:20
Speaker
Tell me the story how you got started in Serenx.
00:02:24
Speaker
Well, I like to tell my kids like, cause I teach high school. I like to tell them that I never got to work with clay until I went to college. So I think I did one thing in seventh grade, nothing in high school. There was no clay whatsoever. I don't know if we even had to kill them. Like, I don't know if it just wasn't taught or what the deal was, but as far as like.
00:02:42
Speaker
what got me into clay is I, I'm an art educator. I had to take a ceramics class when I got to college. So I went to Bowling Green State University in Northwest Ohio, and I had an awesome teacher. His name is John Ginnity. He's out in California still making pots. So like I had a just good positive experience and he encouraged me and I was making like some
00:03:05
Speaker
Kind of crappy shit. You know, nothing was good when I was in college. And it's one of those things where like, I think I, I just found my medium, like I had never done it. And I just knew it. Like once I, once I touched clay and I started making things and I saw all the different kilns and the possibilities, like it was, it was just exciting to me.
Publication in Ceramics Monthly
00:03:23
Speaker
So tell me about the moment when your work got published onto ceramic monthly.
00:03:30
Speaker
Yeah, that was, that was pretty cool. That was pretty surreal. And it was kind of early on when I was making, I think I had like kind of just started finding my voice. I was hand painting everything at that time. Like, so I remember it was like a, a cup of the skull on the front and it had like an ant on the back, you know, kind of like my staple type things, but they put the back of the cup was like what they faced forward in the, in the issue, which was just interesting to me. Cause I was like, Oh, you guys didn't put my skull in, but
00:03:57
Speaker
It was still just really kind of surreal. It was just a magazine that I'd always, I don't know if I just didn't even think it was a possibility my work would ever be in. It was like a dream type thing and it was just really cool. And it was just part of a big feature. So like I was one of 20, 30 artists that had something in, but it was still pretty cool. So what change did you make with your party that allowed you to get onto Ceramics Monthly? I don't even know if I'd made any changes. It was never a potter. I tell people this too.
00:04:27
Speaker
started in college and then even up until like 2017. So we're talking like 15 solid years. I would have considered myself a sculptor, you know, so I did a trip to Europe and I went, I got fortunate with the school I'm at, you know, very fluent school.
European Influences and Graffiti
00:04:43
Speaker
We got to take a trip. I took like 20 some kids with me and six other adults and
00:04:47
Speaker
Just the graffiti over there, London, Paris, all over Italy. Like it just influenced everything I did. So it started me on the path of like, okay, I want to take like this inspiration and put it onto some forms. And I had taken a workshop with Calvin Ma and I got to do like, you know, a mold making class. So I, I slipped cast a tumbler. So that tumbler that you see in my work still is like from that workshop. I've made more of them since, but like, I've got a mold. It gave me.
00:05:16
Speaker
It gave me a vehicle. So I was able to like kind of start putting imagery onto work. And I didn't really have any direction. I was kind of, I was actually Photoshopping things together. Imagery that I had taken when I was abroad and then stuff I would just pull from the internet. And I was just like smashing everything together, making these collages and then putting that on work. And I was just kind of inspired by just working in sections and just trying to replicate things. And it just kept evolving, kept snowballing. So.
00:05:43
Speaker
What were some of the things you were inspired by when you went abroad?
00:06:02
Speaker
Yeah, someone might paint over it, like someone might paint over it tomorrow. And it's just one of those things where I just love the idea of putting your work out in public. I think the first thing I did when I came back, besides even doing pottery and painting and creating this imagery, is I started making those ducks that I make. And the ducks, I basically just had this inspiration of people were putting their work in public and I wanted to put my work in public. So I started leaving the ducks for people to find. And that was one of the first things I did with it. Because I had that from the same slip casting
00:06:32
Speaker
And so it was like, I was like, well, I've got these ducks. What could I do with the, you know, and I started painting on them. And I was just, I was doing Scrapito. I was just doing anything. And it felt like doing on them and leaving them for people to find.
Graffiti-inspired Ceramics Explained
00:06:43
Speaker
But yeah, that was kind of like, it inspired me to do that. And then graffiti just kept kind of popping into this scene. And then here I am. I love that so much. Shaping Nation, if you are making something right now, go put it out somewhere so people can start seeing it. Maybe some new eyes could start coming to your work. I love that so much.
00:07:02
Speaker
So let's talk about your pottery. In one sentence, can you tell me what you make? Ooh, one sentence. I make graffiti-inspired ceramics that I'm just trying to, I don't know, just kind of like put a ton of information on work and make something that kind of makes people feel special when they use it. So tell me the story how you started making this graffiti style work. Well, I kind of was just dabbling all over the place. Like I said, I had tons of imagery. I had like a
00:07:32
Speaker
a feel that I wanted. And I just started kind of again, doing those collage type images. And I was doing a lot of, I don't know, like just different things, different imagery. And then I ended up putting the word riot on one of them. I think I even have a cup somewhere down in my basement. It's like one of the first ones I made. It says chaos on it. And I kind of intended it like there was going to be like this series of all these different kinds of words and somehow riot stuck. And I don't even sign my work anymore. That kind of just is my signature. So it's like, I don't put my name. I don't put a date on any work.
00:08:02
Speaker
put Riot somewhere on all of it. So yeah, I don't know. It just kind of, again, it just kind of evolved, even then like it was like skulls and that kind of evolved into some other things. And then now I'm kind of even going into some more like different, like mid journey AI generated imagery and stuff. So I love that. We'll talk about AI in a little bit, but Kitty, can you tell me how did your work evolve into what you're making today?
00:08:28
Speaker
How did it evolve there? I don't know. It's just a process of like, I don't want to say I got bored with what I'm doing, but I, like, I feel like every batch I make is almost like a test batch. And even then, like, I know like the blind naked, like they're going to look at my work and a lot of it looks the same, which I agree. It does, but it's like, I'm constantly like testing and trying out new things and.
00:08:49
Speaker
Oh, I had never done this before. So I do that and then like, Oh, well that looks like crap. So I don't do that again. And then I do something else, you know, and I just keep bouncing all over the place and it just keeps, I kind of call it snowballing. I kind of jump, you know, I've got a million different finishes. That's where like, I mean, I've seen people do things similar to me, but like, I just do so many different techniques and different trial and error type things. So it kind of just evolves from there and I just let it happen. You know, I just keep trying things. So.
AI and Personal Inspiration in Pottery
00:09:14
Speaker
I love that so much. Shaping Nation, it's so important to keep on testing and testing as much as you can because that's where your voice is going to start evolving even further. I love that so much. For sure. So you are inspired by the world around you. How does this impact your pottery? I think it impacts it a lot for everyone, you know, like what's going on.
00:09:36
Speaker
in my classroom what's going on politically what's going on you know everywhere so it's just it's just interesting to like take it all in and sometimes I don't even I don't even like think of things impacting me they I think they just subconsciously do like like even some of the work like we'll talk about the AI stuff but like I mean one of my main images that I'm like
00:09:55
Speaker
My favorite, and I think a lot of people like too, is the cat image. And it's like, I have my cat and everybody knows my cat that follows me on Instagram. So it's one of those things where everybody knows marshy and that's just, even though I never intended it to be marsh, that's marshy. So it's just, I don't know, little things just keep seeping in from everywhere. So we're gonna come back to AI now. What are you doing? Or can you explain to me how you are using AI for your pottery?
00:10:23
Speaker
Yeah, and like interestingly enough, I kind of didn't know what AI was almost until about December of this last year. I remember we were going on the Christmas break and I'm sitting around with my teacher crew. So I'm one of six full-time high school art teachers at my high school. So I've got a really awesome department and my one dude Grant was talking about AI and he's been dabbling with it and he's an awesome painter.
00:10:44
Speaker
And I was like, he's starting to explain to me, like you can legit just type in whatever you envision and it'll spit out an image. And so I, I didn't know what I wanted to do with it, but it just sounded really interesting. So I went home over Christmas break and I started dabbling and I started like, I download or whatever, paid for mid journey. It's like 30, 35 bucks a month. Didn't really know what I was doing. Didn't have any like vision. And then I started seeing like, I I've made screens before I've used my own, you know, drawings. I've used my own.
00:11:15
Speaker
imagery for that or I pulled imagery from online and I alter it in Photoshop and then I make my own screens like not personally but I send them out but it's just one of those things where like I was like I could use this to generate new imagery and it looks really badass and like to me I know it looks AI
00:11:31
Speaker
and i don't think a lot of people like caught on to what's and what's not yet like i scroll through my feet and i follow a few people in the stuff like as soon as i see it i know it. But it's so interesting cuz i mean i don't sketch well like i would never want to draw these things up on my own and it's like. It's like hyper speed sketching for me like i can just like just like type stuff in and fly and you know i can.
00:11:52
Speaker
I can create 50 new cat images and then I can pick the ones that I want from it in a couple of hours. So it's like, it's pretty amazing. I love that so much because I literally, I'm terrible at drawing myself and I literally use AI for that exact same process. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I love that so much. So can you give me a simplified explanation on how you create your pottery?
Techniques in Slipcasting and Wheel-throwing
00:12:18
Speaker
Well, I do slipcast. I slipcast my ducks. I slipcast the tumblers that you see that are real clean and uniform. And I'll have people be like, whoa, you throw these. They're so light. And I'm like, they're slipcast. So people get confused because not everybody knows how pottery is made. So I slipcast those, but that's pretty much it. Everything else I throw. So I've got my own wheel. I've got my own, you know, Scott 1027 in the basement. Like I've got my own studio here. So basically just wheel thrown work.
00:12:44
Speaker
Most of my work is all underglaze. I do a lot of different things from my underglaze technique perspective, but yeah, wheel thrown, hand painted, but I stencil, I do a million different things as far as finishes. So can you give me an example of some of the finishes that you do?
00:13:02
Speaker
Like if I start a lot of cups, if I know that I'm going to like clear glaze the whole cup, because some cups, I either usually go that route. I'm either clear glazing the whole thing or I am going to just glaze, line the inside and maybe do drips down the outside, but I leave the outside matte finished with underglaze. So I kind of got those two finishes, but like say I'm going to clear glaze one. A lot of times lately, if I've done any textural stuff on the outside, I'm going to
00:13:25
Speaker
do some washes on the outside and just wipe it with a sponge. So I get it like really dinged up with whatever, a blue to start with. And then I go back and I do a lot of mark making. So I mean, I've studied a lot of the just like Basquiat work and just look back and reference his work a lot and different, different mark making.
00:13:43
Speaker
Doesn't matter if they're graffiti artists or not, but different ways of just putting down marks, making marks. I usually create like a base. I'm always working my way from like the background forward. So the last things I'm going to do after I've done mark making, after I've done underglaze transfers and stencils, I usually add white. That usually gives me my clean areas where I can like do whatever. And then I'm going to, you know, screen print usually at the end. Sometimes I can do stuff, but not as much anymore. It's usually if it's like a special show, I'll
00:14:11
Speaker
I'll like maybe like graphite transfer something on like I could print it graphite transfer and then I can hand paint do whatever but now that's kind of like a really quick dumbed down version. So when you make your pottery, what makes you keep a pot versus what makes you throw away a pot a pot that you don't like?
00:14:30
Speaker
I don't throw away too much. I listen to some people that are like, I think it's like usually someone like the crystalline potters and they're talking about how like, they only have like 50, 60% success rate. And I'm like, oh, I couldn't do that. To be honest, as long as it's totally functional and there's not any errors, like, I mean, I think it's something like these colors really, I bounce all over with color. As long as there's no like technical flaws in it or anything, I'm pretty much not throwing too much away. Or if I really hate it that much, you know, maybe I'll give it to a,
00:15:00
Speaker
a friend or something. So let's talk about discovering your voice. Can you tell me about the moment when you knew you were heading in the right direction? I think when I started dabbling just in the graffiti work, because a lot of stuff before that was just me. And I see this with a lot of art. It's just like line designs. And it's like, I don't know, I was kind of just doing things to just see how materials worked. And I don't know.
00:15:25
Speaker
I think once I started discovering my voice, I had more of a narrative with it. A narrative's always been important to me. I just need something where I'm, I don't know, I'm pulling from and I've got symbolism at least to my work. So a lot of my work's symbolic of things, especially a lot of my characters lately are. I mean, to me, they all represent people. The cardinal represents my grandma. She was hardcore Catholic. You've got all these different references for me. I just felt like
00:15:53
Speaker
I don't know. Like I liked my work and I think sometimes subconsciously that like support you get from maybe people on Instagram steers you in a
Narratives and Symbolism in Pottery
00:16:02
Speaker
certain way, which I hate to say that. I don't want to say like I'm influenced by what people want, but I think it happens to all of us. You know, like you make something and people say, that's awesome. And you make more and maybe you get better at it or whatever, but you know, like it kind of steers you down a path too.
00:16:19
Speaker
So you mentioned creating a narrative. Can you explain this to me a little further? I try and do what I do with intention, just in the sense of, like I said, some of my, some of my new recent imagery is definitely very like narrative driven, the sense of I've got almost like a spirit animal group that I'm doing some of my old work, even with like the skulls. And I'm not saying I'm like totally going away from that, but I've kind of pivoted a little bit like.
00:16:44
Speaker
I don't know if I feel like it ran its course or if I feel like I want to do new things, you know, like I don't want to, I don't, I've got my style, but I don't want to be totally just known for like Tony's the ska guy, you know, Tony's the ant guy, which I kind of am, but whatever.
00:16:58
Speaker
I don't want to be, I don't want to get locked in, I guess. But yeah, like narrative wise, like I'll go with about anything. Like, especially like I just bounce. I feel like I'm like the Simpsons. Like it's kind of like one thing happens the next thing that I just like, you know, whatever. I just jump and I'm like, Oh, a cat. Oh, I can do like a little ball of yarn here. Like, Oh, we'll do like, I do like slash marks and do eight lives all the time. Cause like this guy's got one left or so I do like little things that like most people don't even know about, but I do it for me.
00:17:24
Speaker
So I wanted to hop back into AI real quick. What advice would you give for people trying to use AI and incorporate into their pottery?
AI Imagery with Midjourney
00:17:35
Speaker
First off, I know there's a few different things out there. I don't, I tried DALI, it's like D-A-L-L-E and it's like very low level, not great quality. I use mid journey now. I don't know if there's something even comparable. What are you using? Are you using mid journey or?
00:17:51
Speaker
It's like a, mine, she's a free version. It's called Wonder something. It's like an app on the app store. Like I would, I mean, I'd highly suggest mid journeys and here's a good thing. You try it for a month, like spend 30 bucks sign up. Just, you got a disconnect or they're going to keep getting you, but they'll know. Like I like the fact that it is a little daunting to like get in there and there's all these different rooms that you can go into in the sense of like where you're creating and then where does your work go? Like you got to figure it out that stuff.
00:18:19
Speaker
But it's just endless. Maybe it just helps you, you and I, I think I both said, it helps you sketch. And maybe that leads to different ideas. For me, I just see it do things. And I'm like, well, I don't even like that image. But I like that it did that with those circles. And I just steal from it. I don't know. It's just interesting how it formulates things. And yeah, it's just something you've got to dabble with. You've got to practice just like art.
00:18:44
Speaker
I definitely agree. Shaping Nation, if you're afraid to use AI right now because maybe you are afraid it's going to take over your pottery, use it for resources and inspiration, not to be afraid of it. Just use it for sure to help you get your ideas out. I love that so much. Yeah, I don't know if you've seen Carol Epp. She's using about mud, but she's been using AI. She's created like a whole page that's just her AI work and it's awesome because you can like
00:19:10
Speaker
you can upload an image into it. So I think she's doing some more of this, but it'll be of a potter with their work. And then it uses that image, plus polls from the internet. And it's just insane. I think it's just giving you prototypes for things you can do, which I think is really cool too. Exactly. And I think it's very powerful. It could definitely lead people down to new journeys with that.
Impact of Teaching on Artistic Practice
00:19:34
Speaker
For sure.
00:19:35
Speaker
So you contribute your growth as an artist to your current high school teacher position. How has that helped you with your own work?
00:19:43
Speaker
Well, even just in the sense, like I teach kids and I have my ways of doing things. Like I would say, don't ever bubble glaze with a light color. Don't ever do this or that. Like I've got my rules and then I watch a kid start to do something and it just goes against everything that I would do. And I'm like, I'm just gonna let them do it. I'm gonna let them do it. Like I have to like,
00:20:05
Speaker
I have to refrain from stepping in and then I let them do it. I'm like, damn, that looks cool. And like, I mean, I steal things from my kids. Like I literally just use white bubble glaze and it's one of the neatest. And then I'm really geeked about my next kiln because it's going to have some of that in there. And I'm like, this is going to look rad. And I never would have been as simple as it sounds. White underglaze, bubble glaze, whatever. Like it was just something I probably wouldn't have done. Like it's, it's helped me a lot. I also have a couple of people like, I mean, my,
00:20:33
Speaker
My department's awesome. Like I'm the dumbest person in my department. They're all amazing and really intellectual and I can like bounce ideas off of them. And they're so good at like, we help each other, you know, and most of us practice. So it's like, it's just really cool to have my one dude grants, like a painter, but he's got such skills that are in line with what I do too. Like he's good at suggesting things with me. And like this job where I'm at, like, I think I would have probably still been doing sculpture if I wouldn't have switched jobs like nine years ago. Like.
00:21:02
Speaker
Like I would have never went functional. I probably would have been making these big silly trophies that I was making for years. Like it just, I don't know if I would have ever gotten to go to Europe. I wouldn't have been able to afford it, you know? And it's just one of those things that like this, this job's opened up all those avenues for me. So, so how did taking this job allow you to go from sculpture work to functional work? Just in the fact that like, I mean, I could have went to,
00:21:27
Speaker
functional work if I wanted to at this other place, but I don't think I would have taken that trip to Europe and been inspired. I don't think I would have known about, let alone done, a workshop with Calvin Moth. Since I'm closer to Columbus, Ohio, I hear about more things that are going on. There's more of a clay community there, like where I was before I was up in a more rural area, about maybe an hour from that.
00:21:53
Speaker
I just didn't even know what was kind of going on. And I think Instagram's huge too. That's inspired me to like, oh, this person's doing this. This person's doing that. And you can keep up with people all around the world, which is awesome. And yeah, I don't know. I think it's just, again, one of those snowball effects of I got to go on that trip. I got to do that workshop. Then that led me to meet this person. And then G, my guy that I teach with, he pushed me to enter shows. I had never entered my work in a show until
00:22:26
Speaker
I love that. So
Advice for Aspiring Potters
00:22:33
Speaker
as we are coming to a close here, what advice would you give to someone trying to discover their own unique voice with their pottery?
00:22:39
Speaker
Kind of coming back to where we started, I think yes, you gotta make lots of work. I think you gotta get, they always talk about your 10,000 hours. I think it's just one of those things where like,
00:22:49
Speaker
My dude I talked about a few times, Jesus, like, I think you got your 10,000 art, like with my line work. Cause he's just a bad-ass painter. And it's like, he sees it. He's like, dude, there's a, there's a shift in your like line work. It's just tighter. You're cleaner. And just so those things were like, you just do it over and over and over. And you might not even think you're getting that much better, but like, it's noticeable. Like if you go back even a year, I look at my work and go, whoa, like it looks so much different now. Like, and then I think again, just I've been doing SICA.
00:23:16
Speaker
I went to Pittsburgh in like, I think it was 2019. I think that's been huge for me. I went to Inseka. I met Brian Wilkerson and I met Mike FX and Mike Regan. I mean, I stay with those dudes every year now. Like, those are my homies that like, I go back to Inseka, we get back together, we all like roll around that I've met more friends and like, we just keep getting them. I mean, it's just, you, there's such a community in ceramics and I know so many people that aren't in ceramics that like,
00:23:39
Speaker
They hate how awesome we are. They're just like you guys. I wish we had that as painters or whatever. It's just not the same. There's just lots of things that I think have sent me on my way. Tony, it was so great chatting with you today. Where can my audience go and learn more about you?
00:23:57
Speaker
Probably the best place is my Instagram, which is my last name young with a Y on the end of it, and then underscore zero three. I am going to teach a workshop doing my techniques at Picosa and it's an online virtual workshop. So anybody could sign up. It's only like, I guess like 110 bucks, which isn't too bad. So yeah, if you like my work and you want kind of want to see how I do things and, you know, figure out how to do those things in your work a little bit, you can sign up for that. But yeah, that's probably the best places.
00:24:29
Speaker
We hope you enjoyed this episode of Shaping Your Pottery with Nick Torres. Do you have questions about pottery that you'd like Nick to answer? Send them to us on Instagram at Nick Torres underscore pottery. We'll see you next time.