The Imagination Never Dies: A Resident Artist’s Coming of Age

It started with playdough.

As a child I enjoyed making structures out of the colorful, salted clay for orientational purposes. My father would draw for me when I was young, when he was still alive. He drew people, small animals and birds. Then he would give me playdough to build everything he drew. My father would talk about the figures he drew and examine the figures I created. He told me many stories, animating every object. Clay, in any form, has offered a therapeutic and soothing outlet for me my entire life. As a severely sight-impaired artist, clay has added a sense of purpose and balance to my entire world.  

As I grew up clay and its origins continued to excite my curiosity. What colors and types exist in this world? Exactly what else could be done with these clays? The possibilities kept me interested. I heard that clay was “cooked” and could change to glass. The simple answer I found is that it all comes from the ground – from all over the world. I realized clay, the unsalted variety, is beautiful, and I can make many beautiful objects with it. 

I did not get a formal education in clay. My studio practice began at a community art center, once called Bloomington Art Center, now known as Artistry, located in west Bloomington, Minnesota. Here is where my knowledge of clay deepened, quenching the curiosity my father had awakened. I understood why people built or threw clay on a pottery wheel. I began to implement proper terminology – the “stove” clay is “baked” in is a kiln and that clay isn’t “baked,” it’s fired. I experienced different types of kilns and firing processes, like raku. I began to design ceramic projects and to enter my works into juried gallery exhibitions. I joined other community arts organizations like Minnesota Women Ceramic Artists and the Roho Collective in Minneapolis. The MNWCA is a professional organization that supports women ceramic artists in Minnesota and provides opportunities for exhibiting, networking, and mentoring. The Roho Collective takes its name from the Swahili word for spirit or soul. They embrace, support, and nurture artists of color, striving to create a positive impact in the Twin Cities and demonstrate how art can be a powerful force for unity, empowerment, and change. As I developed my approach to clay at the art center, I also developed a consistent style. I found that I love sgraffito and adding lots of textures to objects that are both functional and sculptural. Visiting studio practices and sales events occurring in the local communities, helped me network with other artists in the field.   

After working for many years, 2019 became my triple crown year in ceramics. It was the first time I attended the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts conference. In the past I mostly assumed NCECA was only for persons who taught ceramics or were formally educated in ceramics, but I was still seeking opportunities to attend and applied for NCECA grants repeatedly. In 2019 I became a recipient of a Black Indigenous Persons of Color grant, and that year Minneapolis, actually the entire state of Minnesota, hosted the conference. I felt like Cinderella going to the ball! I had three pieces of art on exhibition in two locations during the conference: The Northrup King Building, located in an exclusive Northeast Minneapolis neighborhood, and the Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport, in the Herbert H. Humphrey Terminal. Attending the conference and exhibiting work during the conference where my first two crowns. I enjoyed the convention and took full advantage of the chance to meet other artists, listen to speakers, visit the many gallery setups around town and at the convention. I learned about The Color Network too. I became aware of many BIPOC artists through this organization. I attended workshops and participated in the Maker Space, part of NCECA’s Project Space in the main exhibition hall. I saved the project as a memento of my first attendance. I purchased a cup from the annual cup sale. Each experience was a jewel in my crown, but the final crown, topping everything off, was the interview with Paul Blais, host of The Potters Cast, and participating in a recording for the the NCECA podcast. 2019 was really a great coming out year. I never dreamed I could experience so much in one week. This was prior to COVID-19. There were no masks. I had anxiety, but it was good, happy, adrenaline-driven, sensory overload anxiety.    

After my years in the small suburban community art center, I was invited to become a pre-emergent BISQUE Resident artist at the Northern Clay Center. BISQUE stands for: Believe, Include, Sustain, Question, Understand, Evolve. These terms are significant to me and explain my residency exceptionally well. I felt I had been granted the golden ticket and opportunities to fully develop my studio practice. Working from my shared studio at NCC, I planned to take advantage of this unique environment. 

Clay fairy tales do come true. 

I began my residency year in September of 2019 with a clear agenda and began working on the projects the day I stepped into my studio space. Having access to the variety of kilns at NCC, I was eager to try soda firing. Figuring out the locations of all the classroom studios, I familiarized myself with the building and memorized where materials were stored. I tested all the clay bodies available for purchase in the clay storage bay. 

As my understanding of ceramic materials grew, I saw where I could bend the rules; I mixed low and high fire clays to create an Asian taper carrying basket. There were two glazing stations with low-fire and high-fire glazes. My favorite high-fire glazes became Rhodes White and Tenmoku. The combination produced black and white effects that are high contrast, which is easier for me to see. Yellow Soda became my preferred surface for basket forms.

In the winter I dove into mold design and started a few series of forms that allowed me to investigate the production process, the characteristics of clay bodies, and glazes. Another NCC studio artist, Kate Maury, showed me how to create a humidor to keep my projects from drying out. I attended every workshop that was offered. Everyday I was gaining knowledge I could use to organize my own studio – to make the things I wanted to make. 

Once I had several results from my clay and glaze experiments, I felt I could begin working toward the gallery exhibition that would take place at the end of my residency. I turned my attention toward specific themes. Before the residency I would create in an exploratory, intuitive manner, but now, prior to starting the task of building, I would make a plan around my developing themes: the ecosystem of homes, migrations and enslavement of people, and the destruction of resources. I explored these themes through two forms: the basket and the cameo. 

I have always wanted to explore the idea of home, considering what that means. More specifically, what it would have been like if I lived on another section of the earth? What if I had been born a different species, sex, or race? Would I even still be living? Maybe I would be or maybe I would be on the endangered species list – just a puff of flames, like the rainforest or parts of the United States that seem to be waiting to die. We are the stewards of the earth and I question what we are leaving for future generations. These intermingled questions arose from my themes and became oval-tile cameos with images that celebrate the fragile ecosystem we inherited from mother earth. I specifically focused on geographic locations found in the United States, Africa, and South America – regions that are tied to my own heritage. Baskets are the adaptable children of the earth. They are born from the by-product of trees and also from the by-product of man-made industry. History has informed us that baskets are precursors of pottery vessels. Used for food storage, clothing, and fishing, they reflect many cultures in their diversity.

In the first half of my residency I did not miss a beat. My overlapping themes became more and more important to my soul and kept me working as an artist. 

However, like many, I was not immune to the global effects of COVID-19. I work for the Minneapolis Veterans Affairs Health Care System and am considered a frontline health care worker. I have worked at the VA continuously through the pandemic. In March of 2020 I was locked out of the NCC studio space when the cities began sheltering in place. Stressful moments and high anxiety followed me daily. I had registered for kilns to fire and was hoping to go to my second NCECA in Richmond, Virginia in 2020. I had plans in place to participate in the buddy system again – NCECA staff paired me with volunteers in 2019 to help me navigate the conference hall. I was looking forward to meeting James Watkins in person. I was excited to complete my third artist mentor interview, part of my BISQUE residency package, with Dan Finnegan. I hadn’t even had the chance to document completed work to apply for a NCC 2020 Emerging Artist Residency. A pre-showing of my work, scheduled for May, was cancelled. None of these milestones happened. It felt like my triple crown was falling off.

As a blind artist the shutdown was a straight up culture shock. I felt I knew nothing about a setting up a home studio or how to transport greenware around town. It was truly my first rodeo. As an emerging artist I had many doubts regarding my capabilities. I had been at NCC less than six months. Everything was just – shut down. Initially I was overwhelmed with fears that normal community studio times would never return, but I was too angry to be scared long. Fear manifested itself into invention. I started thinking, "What it would be like if I never returned to the studio – what could I possibly do?" One thing I knew I could do well, was survive. 

I stuck to the themes I had started developing in my BISQUE residency, and I timidly set into organization mode, building a makeshift studio in my one-bedroom, carpeted apartment. My first attempt to go to Continental Clay to pick up supplies using Metro Mobility, a shared ride public transportation service for certified riders who are unable to use regular fixed-route buses due to a disability or health condition, was a learning experience for everyone. The driver almost took me back home because we were not allowed to enter the store and he could not find the loading dock where they instructed him to assist me in picking my pre-ordered and paid for supplies. This was before all the protocols had been fully established in regard to entering stores and curbside pickup was still getting sorted out by establishments. Of course, the clay and supplies were crucial for me to be able to set up a home studio. All the tools and clay I owned were inside of NCC and we were not allowed to retrieve anything. Wanting to keep these home projects distinct from projects built at NCC, I purchased a dark chocolate clay body that was not in the NCC’s inventory. I didn’t want to risk mixing the two bodies of work up, just in case things built at home were not successful.