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The Art Of Simplicity w/ Whitney Gill
185 Plays2 months ago
In this episode of Shaping Your Pottery, Whitney Gill shares her journey into the world of ceramics, influenced by her artistic family and a defining moment at the Haystack Mountain School of Craft. She discusses embracing simplicity in pottery design and the importance of documenting one's creative process. Whitney emphasizes the role community and craft schools like the Maine Crafts Association play in her development as an artist. She reflects on her evolution during COVID-19, experimenting with her craft, and tapping into inspirations from her surroundings and her partner's music. Whitney offers advice on finding one's own pottery voice, the value of community involvement, and promoting one's work through social media. The episode concludes with encouragement that you don't need to be full-time to be a legitimate artist; the key is starting where you are with available resources. You can learn more about whitney by checking out her instagram https://www.instagram.com/whitneymgill/
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00:00 Introduction and Newsletter Invitation 00:19 Guest Introduction: Whitney's Pottery Journey 01:50 The Influence of Artistic Parents 02:35 Community and Craft Schools 07:18 COVID and Pottery Evolution 14:07 Designs and Patterns in Pottery 16:10 Finding Your Unique Pottery Voice 19:22 Balancing Life and Pottery 22:45 Final Thoughts and Advice
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Transcript
Introduction to Pottery Journey
00:00:00
Speaker
Hey, real quick, before we get started, if you want to learn more about pottery and to develop your own pottery voice, come join the Shaping Your Pottery newsletter, where every Saturday I send out a quick five minute email to help you grow your own pottery voice. Go to shapingyourpottery.com forward slash newsletter or click the link in the description. I hope to see you there. Now let's get started. I want to make it really simple. It's something that I can do over and over again and I don't get sick of Whitney.
00:00:26
Speaker
What could shape your pottery and share with me what is something you believe everyone in the pottery role should be doing? I think I love ceramics because of how limitless it is. The rules are made and broken all the time. So I can't say there's anything specifically you should or shouldn't be doing, but never stop experimenting and exploring and always document your process. Absolutely agree. 100%. Excellent advice right there.
Influences and Beginnings
00:00:50
Speaker
Now tell me the story how you got started making pottery. I homeschooled.
00:00:55
Speaker
And my parents really recognized me as an artist from a young age. Both of my parents are artists. My dad apprenticed with a potter in Cape Cod. It's called Scargo Pottery. He brought me there to visit when I was in high school and it really left a big impression on me.
00:01:11
Speaker
they were They just built this gorgeous showroom built right into the land. They all worked right there. It was a family running this business. And I was just so taken by that. And then I so i actually, I was more of a fine artist. i home When I homeschooled, my parents connected me with a local artist who who had a farm. She raised sheep. She taught me fiber arts, sewing, sculpture, painting, all sorts of things. And I really thought fine arts was the direction I was going to take. But I took a figurative sculpture class at Haystack Mountain School of Craft in 2011.
00:01:41
Speaker
and really never looked back. I realized how much sculpture is like drawing in 3D. That's what it is. I never wanted to do anything else after that. I chose ceramics. You mentioned that your parents are both artists. How did then being artists help you with the direction of your whole career? Well, so many thoughts there, but I think I one always tied my career in with my creative side and also wanting to support other artists. And I think that ties in directly with my parents being artists and just caring for the people around me who are trying to make a living, doing a really hard thing, but it's it's what they know they're meant to do. I feel like both of my parents would have pursued art more if they had the support to do it. So I i definitely took that direction with my career. I'm an artist myself, but also an administrator.
00:02:33
Speaker
Absolutely love that. So you contribute growth as artists to memberships with local organizations and craft schools. Tell me more about this. Sure. So yeah, that's my clay story continued. I've always tied art schools, craft schools in with my studies as an artist. I wanted to get involved with other organizations. I didn't actually realize it initially.
00:02:58
Speaker
I and left Haystack and realized ceramics was definitely the direction I wanted to take, and was kind of feeling out what that meant in our immediate community, what kind of resources were available. I was taking ceramics classes at University of Maine at Augusta with Brandon Lutterman, who was my instructor. And I met ah Mary Kay, Jeff, and Danae of the Potters House. They're a local pottery studio. They kind of adopted me. And I i was a single parent, had a son. I was a young mom.
00:03:27
Speaker
And I was hard enough trying to get by in that way. And I really wanted to be an artist. I wanted to maintain that part of myself. So I started working in their studio, started learning about production pottery, how they made a living as clay artists. And I felt like that was a ah valuable direction to take their production potters. And they they made a living independently, good middle class living off of just selling their work, and I was so fascinated and and wanted to learn how they did that.
Professional Growth and Community
00:03:56
Speaker
They introduced me to the Main Crafts Association in 2013. I was hired to work at the Center for Main Craft and stayed there. I initially it was just part-time, didn't think I was going to do more than that over the summer, but ended up realizing I i didn't want to do anything else. I really loved that job. I loved meeting all the members, and we represent over 300 artists that sell their work in this store, and i I love all of them.
00:04:19
Speaker
So I took an assistant manager role and then I became gallery manager in 2022. I was a director of operations for a short period of time. And then I became the executive director. So that was a year ago. So that's always been tied in with my life as an artist is wanting to know more artists, really wanting to understand the landscape in the community.
00:04:40
Speaker
and being connected to the Maine Crafts Association, in places like the K-Stack Mountain School of Craft or Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts, has really just benefited my life in so many ways. What were you feeling when you first started attending these organizations in craft school? I felt seen for the first time, I think, in a way, like, okay, this isn't just ah a cool hobby that people do. this is People make their lives out of this.
00:05:05
Speaker
And there's this worldwide community that comes together, especially someplace like Haystack or Watershed. what What a gift it is to have that. And I live in Mid Coast, Maine, to have these just a few hours from me and people from all over the world come to these places to learn and to share knowledge. And that's what an incredible gift to have that resource basically in my backyard. So you mentioned Watershed. Tell me the story how that one came to be.
00:05:33
Speaker
Yeah, how did I get connected with Watershed? The Maine Crafts Association for a very short period of time ran Salad Days, which is their annual fundraiser. So my boss at the time and a few of my co-workers were running that program.
00:05:47
Speaker
And we were pretty nearby. The Center for Main Craft is only about 45 minutes from watershed. um So I started attending salad days every year. I'm a devout fan. I invite all my friends. It's like a big pottery party. i I love going every year. And I think through that, I just started doing more and more work there. I haven't been able to do a longer residency yet. I would like to someday, but I try to go to their weekend, their long weekend sessions as much as I can.
00:06:13
Speaker
We also have a craft apprentice program through the Maine Arts Commission and Watershed hosts our exhibitions and alumni gathering for that program every year. That'll take place next month. Now, what is something you have learned over your time at craft schools and organizations that has helped you with your own property? Oh, just meeting people. I think meeting meeting so many people and really understanding how they had their journey has brought them to where they are. I like how they use ceramics as a vessel, or not just ceramics, all over, all these media. They're they're using these media as a vessel to express who they are. And there' there's just so much knowledge that's traditional and also breaking old rules and new that they're doing too to express themselves. And I've just always been fascinated by that. Absolutely love that. Shape Nation.
00:07:04
Speaker
The more you get around other potters and other artists, the better your pottery will grow and the more you'll learn and the more fun it actually becomes. I absolutely love that. Yeah. So let's talk about your pottery. Can you tell me the story? and They started making a pottery that you made today. Yeah.
Adapting to Change: The COVID Era
00:07:19
Speaker
So you probably hear this a lot, but during COVID I was stuck at home. I went on furlough and I was at home for four months. We'd actually just bought our house not long before and it was,
00:07:32
Speaker
such a gift to be where we were during that time. We went into this isolated state. We're in our little bubble. And I had this space that I was turning into a pottery studio already. We'd already been planning on that. And I just put everything into those four months of developing that studio, learning, testing out new materials. I was in ah in a shared studio before I was at the potter's house. I was using their clay and making a completely different line of work when I moved here and had that time available to me.
00:08:01
Speaker
i took that chance to just change everything and experiment with some things. So I started working with a white clay. Instead, of previously it was a ah brown clay with malachite, or sorry, one second. Previously it was a brown clay with grog, and then I switched to a white clay with malachite. And I started throwing production pottery and going for this really colorful surface design. I work with, when I was in fine art, I worked with ink a lot, and I really,
00:08:32
Speaker
People always push me to work with color. I was always just straight black and white. And I think i as I've come full circle, I've realized I've i've brought that into my clay too. i'm I'm just really drawn to that, but I have added some ah bright color. I work with color series. I try to switch it up each year and do something different, but I ah try to maintain these series of black and white kind of painterly essence. I'm using pottery like a canvas basically and and adding those those gestural movements to them.
00:09:00
Speaker
Why do you like the black and white on your pottery? I like to make repeating patterns that aren't like cookie cutter or like stickers. I like them to be these kind of consistent gestural movements that tell a story between the work, but none of them are totally identical.
00:09:22
Speaker
And I really like how I'm, I'm kind of in control of the brush, but also I buy like the crappiest brushes I can find. I really like the ones that give a lot of gestural movement and registration that that can come from those really bristly brushes. And i I try not to have too much influence over that. I just want it to kind of take on its own essence as it goes onto the pot. So you mentioned the story it tells when you're making. Tell me more about that.
00:09:51
Speaker
The story it tells when I'm making. A lot of the time I'm listening to an audio book. This is like this kind of secret. I'm usually listening to music or an audio book or something like that while I'm making. And I'll go back to that work and just immediately go back to whatever I was listening to while I was making. And my partner's a musician and his music studio is actually right behind my pottery studio. And a lot of time whatever he's working on kind of trickles into what I'm working on. And there's nothing too direct about that. All of my work's pretty gestural and intuitive, but it's usually influenced by music or by whatever I'm reading or listening to. Love that. Shaped Nation, you could take inspiration from literally every single day of your life, whatever it is, whether it's music, stories, or just literally just walk, taking a walk. You can take inspiration from anywhere. Absolutely love that.
Balancing Pottery with Life
00:10:50
Speaker
so you've been making pottery for around 12 years. What keeps you make motivated to continue making? Well, I've invested in it. I bought a house and made a pottery studio and I plan to keep that going. And I think that has pushed me to while I have this career, I'm working full time and an arts director for a nonprofit that takes a lot of my time and I have kids in school. There's a lot of things that could distract me from it and often do, but being tied to this community and being recognized as a maker is an essential and intrinsic part of who I am. So pottery has become that vessel for me, even though i I do also enjoy a lot of other media. I think experimenting with a lot of things just
00:11:37
Speaker
brings more to what I will experiment with and and try to express through pottery. Something I find people come across a lot is that they find it hard to sometimes be actually making pottery. What helps you with balancing the work, family, and also making pottery? I sign up for things. but I'll sign up for a few craft shows or take on a gallery or I'll take on a commission. I try to take on enough that I know I can handle, but I i find that little push keeps me going, keeps me working. Absolutely love that. So something from your website that I found interesting is you are inspired by the artist's way of life and magic found in rural places. Tell me more about this. Yeah. I grew up in the Longfellow Mountains in Western Maine and I'm pretty, what's the word? So but's what's that word when you're you don't like to be around people all the time?
00:12:33
Speaker
Introverted? Introverted, yeah. I'm pretty introverted. And I really loved animals. I spent a lot of time just chasing animals around. I had horses and sheep. We we had the sheep farm with a 20 acre pasture. And most of the time I was either in the barn or in that pasture, just kind of poking around. I like to make up a lot of narratives around these animals' lives, what they did out there. They had this whole whole social group. And my parents My grandparents' farm was on the same property, and there are these old houses in the woods that's kind of a back-to-land movement in the 60s and 70s. All these people had gone out there and built these cabins and studios off the grid, and they would go to my grandparents' house to take showers and get supplies. And they all kind of eventually just abandoned this property, but left everything in it. It was like a time capsule. And one was this beautiful, like, pristine artist studio with all her work still in it. And my cousins and I would just go,
00:13:30
Speaker
poke around in those those old cabins and explore and just envision what it was like to live out there. And I think that has stuck with me my whole life. as I was so inspired and still continue to feel connected to that. During COVID, I bought paddle boards for my partner and I, and we just went out and found like the soggiest marshes we could find to just go explore and and find the animal. like what What lives in these cool marshes that are all around us? and We live near the Tacoma lakes now, and I think that exploration still feeds and inspires me more than anything. I love that. That's a great story.
Techniques and Design Philosophy
00:14:07
Speaker
so can you give me a brief explanation of the steps you take when adding your designs of patterns to your po so Can you give me a brief explanation of the step take when adding your designs and patterns to your
00:14:20
Speaker
Oh, the steps I take. Okay. I, so I throw on the wheel and, and then usually I'm, for example, I'm making a mug, which is what I'm sure most of us make most of the time, s mugs for days. And I throw, I throw my mugs, put my handles on and I decorate in the, the greenware stage. So I'll apply color.
00:14:43
Speaker
I'll apply wax and I actually, by the black underglaze that I use, I water it down a bit. So it has a really inky quality. And I use Chinese brushes a lot of the time that really take on a lot of underglaze in the brush. And I apply just by hand, every mug. I have some kind of standard patterns that I use. They're kind of repeating patterns, but they're very gestural and a Biscfire Cone 4 or 04.
00:15:11
Speaker
And then we usually, I have, we have a 30 foot Olson kit kiln. We fire gas and with um an oxidation, or am I might do electric firing cone five um with just a clear liner glaze. I like to leave the exterior unglazed and just let that nice softness of the velvet underglazes from Amaco is what I usually use. and I love the the softness of the color when I leave it bare. What do you mean by softness of the color?
00:15:39
Speaker
It has this texture to it. I actually sand the exterior of my pots too after I fire it. So it has this really smooth texture. I think it's it's kind of a nice surprise for the person that uses it, that you pick up the mug and you're you're usually expecting a like a glossy finish on the exterior or if it's unglazed, it might be rough. I i like to polish it down and it's it has this this visual and also lack of texture. It's just the softness as you hold it that it's just nice.
00:16:08
Speaker
I absolutely loved that. 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 with your pottery? There's just so many, I think, points of discovery that I went through, but the biggest moment was during COVID when I was here and just dove into it. I was, I think I took a workshop with Diana Fate online. She did these, if you're familiar with her work, she does this beautiful surface design with these like bright splashes of color. She does Mishima, she does inlay, she does some resist work. And I really
00:16:51
Speaker
benefited from that class and and learning about her techniques and carried that to my own work. And a lot I experimented in a lot of different ways before I got to where I am now, where I ah wanted to make some work that could be repeated. It still has a production essence to it where I can make these series. I can make a bunch of them and people can collect them and continue to have work that that reflects like, okay, Whitney definitely made all of these, but if you know me, you know I've made them at different times. I think once I discovered that, I found something that I could repeat that I don't get sick of. And I knew it was my unique voice and that anybody could look at that and know Whitney probably made it. That's when I made that realization. What were you feeling when you found this repeating patterns that you do look at?
00:17:44
Speaker
I think I want to make it really simple. And sometimes i like i I feel like maybe it's too simple and I want to expand on it. And that's probably where I'll where i'll go with this work is I take it. But i I think it's meditative to make these repeating patterns that are gestural. And it's it's something that I can do over and over again, and I don't get sick of. they's still I've put myself within these parameters, but can really explore how far I can take it within this really minimal minimal material. Why do you want to make your pottery more simple? I want it to. Yeah. Why do I want to make it more simple? I think because I picture where it's going to end up and how it would fit into the environment around it.
00:18:35
Speaker
how a person's going to use it, how's how it's going to compliment their home. It's still pretty bold. i even Even though it's simple in design and process, there's black and white with a ah bright color. like My bright red is one of the best sellers. And I wondered, you know is that too strong? Is it too bold? Is it going to like draw someone's eye in a way that like it they're not going to buy it because it's not going to compliment their beige kitchen? But I i guess I've stopped worrying about that if as people have really responded well, they want this kind of work in their lives. They they respond well to that boldness. Absolutely love that. Shaping Nation, your pottery could be simple, but it could also be bold at the same time. It doesn't have to have either, or it could have combined both at the same time. Absolutely love that.
Finding a Unique Voice in Pottery
00:19:23
Speaker
So what would you say was your biggest obstacle when it came to find your own voice? Access to studio space and time. Yeah, we're the two biggest ones. I've really
00:19:33
Speaker
Like I said earlier, having my own studio space is what really launched me to having time for this exploration and discovering what direction I wanted to take. Prior to that, I spent a lot of time just trying to find things, but didn't have a lot of, trying to find a studio where I could really spend as much time as I wanted to. And also, yeah, with the rest of my busy life, being able to actually dedicate some time to it was a struggle.
00:20:03
Speaker
Sorry, I blinked. I had a follow up question, but I blinked right there. So what new opportunities started coming your way when you found your own voice? Well, I've had a lot of interest from people and I regret that I don't always have the capacity to follow up with all of it, but I think that's a great problem to have. um One great thing I did is when I worked with Main, have continued my work with Main Crafts Association is learning how to promote myself and create a brand.
00:20:33
Speaker
And it made it easier for people to see a line of work, see that I'm able to make something consistent. And it makes it makes it easier for customers and galleries to be able to place an order with me and know they're going to get consistency. What have you done to how promote yourself and your own work? Part of Main Crafts Association and a few other organizations, I've worked with up country artists. I just joined the Southern Main Clay Guild.
00:21:00
Speaker
I think working with organizations to meet other people in the community will just, there are so many opportunities that you might not be aware of that are just in your immediate environment. Also using social media to promote myself, I'm not great at it, but I i like to have the timestamp of it. You can kind of see the progression, see see what I've done with my work over time. Just being able to share with the world through social media is a pretty incredible benefit.
00:21:29
Speaker
absolutely love that. So now what advice would you give to someone that discovered their own unique voice with their pottery? Read the artist's way, go through the prompts, do it with a group if you can. I also did that during COVID and it really opened a lot of doors for me in my mind of of who I am, what my background is, and where I wanted to take my work. Sorry if you can hear paper shuffling, I have notes here. Okay, jumping back in.
00:21:56
Speaker
And also joining local organizations, like I said earlier, being being part of a community will really benefit you. So you mentioned reading the art display, but doing the prompts as a group. Why should they do it as a group?
00:22:10
Speaker
It keeps you honest, it keeps you coming back. I think if you you set up that structure around yourself and have some mutual discussion, i owe I'm only surprised by how much that benefits me. To hear other people's feedback and and experience might just bring my attention to something that I i wouldn't have found on my own.
00:22:30
Speaker
Love that if I shape nation, like we've mentioned before earlier, this episode, get around other potters, do things as groups and get feedback from other artists as well, because that's how you're going to grow much faster and be that much more enjoyable. Absolutely love that. Now, Whitney, it's been great chatting with you today. As we come to a close here, what is one thing when I hammer off with my listeners today? ah You don't need to make work full time to be a legitimate artist.
00:22:56
Speaker
Wherever you're coming from, whatever resources you have available, take advantage of it and utilize that as much as you can. It's whatever your life is, whatever background you have, whatever whatever is available to you now, you can still be valid as an artist without having to throw. Don't wait for the perfect moment. Just start. Some X and party words advice. Absolutely love it. Whitney, it's been a great challenge today. Where can my listeners go and learn more about you?
00:23:25
Speaker
You can go to my website, whitneygill.com. ah You can go to my social media, WhitneyMGill on Instagram. um You can also visit Main Crafts Association and learn my about my work there as well. Hey, thanks for listening to this episode of Shaping Your Pottery with Nick Torres. If you want to master the art of pottery and dive deeper into techniques of the potters I interview, I created a newsletter that does just that. It dives deep into the techniques of the potters I interview. If you want to learn more, go to shapingyourpottery.com forward slash newsletter or click the link in the description to learn more.