Today on the Tales of a Red Clay Rambler Podcast I have an interview with Adam Chau. Blending the machinery of industry with an interest in handcraft, Adam has created a digital calligraphy process which he uses to decorate tiles and vessels. In our interview we talk about developing mechanical mark-making processes, his Screenshot series investigating our evolving relationship with mobile devices, and his most recent show Sent, which revolves around the paradox of the anonymous selfie.

Today on the Tales of a Red Clay Rambler Podcast I have an interview with Dr. Melissa Weimer. She has worked at local, state, and national levels to improve access to evidence-based treatments for patients with substance use disorder. In addition to her role treating patients, she is an experienced educator who teaches health care students and professionals in order to increase the addiction medicine workforce. In our interview we talk about the disease model for addiction, how substance use affects neurobiology, and current medical treatments for a variety of substance use disorders.

On today’s episode, I talk about the need for the ceramic community, myself included, to be actively antiracist in our actions. As we make changes to create a more inclusive ceramic community for Black, Indigenous and artists of color I encourage you to consider Dr. King’s words on the dangers of the white moderate with their hesitance to take up the fight for social justice in favor of slow reforms. The time for change is now.

Today on the Tales of a Red Clay Rambler Podcast I have an interview with Isaac Scott. His ceramic vessels and sculpture draw from hip hop, pop culture, and politics, and are inspired by historical cultures that communicated their values through symbolic leadership figures, such as pharaohs and Gods. He uses silk screens, stencils, and painting to create images of political figures, musicians, artists, and self-portraits that create modern myths. In our interview we talk about the power of monuments, black representation in public spaces, and his recent photographs of Black Lives Matter protests in Philadelphia, PA. During the course of a peaceful protest against police brutality, Isaac and other protesters were beaten, tear gassed, and shot with rubber bullets.

Today on the Tales of a Red Clay Rambler Podcast I have an interview with Andrei Taraschuk. Using computer skills from his day job as a software engineer, Taraschuk creates and manages a fleet of art bots that post images of art across Twitter, Facebook, and other social media. In our interview we talk about the structure of an art bot, which social media platforms have responded best to bots, and why we need art in our daily lives.

Today on the Tales of a Red Clay Rambler Podcast I have an interview with Tim Kowalczyk. His trompe l’oeil ceramic vessels mimic cardboard, Styrofoam, and other normally disposable industrial materials. In our interview we talk about the building process for making trompe l’oeil objects, the symbiotic benefits of being loyal to a gallery, and his web series “Critiquing with Kids.”

Today on the Tales of a Red Clay Rambler Podcast I have an interview with Carrie Cleveland. She works in disaster-preparedness education and outreach for the Craft Emergency Relief Fund. CERF+ was started by artists for artists in the craft community in 1985 and has since emerged as the leading nonprofit organization that uniquely focuses on safeguarding artists’ livelihoods. In our interview we talk about the Cares Act Legislation and resources available to artists to help with the financial impact of the COVID pandemic.

Today on the Tales of a Red Clay Rambler Podcast I have an interview with Justin Rothshank. Working from his home studio in Goshen, IN Justin has been making functional pottery and experimenting with low-temperature firing techniques for many years. He recently published his first full-length book Low Fire Soda, which outlines his experimentation and development of atmospheric-fired earthenware. In our interview we talk about the advantages of switching to low temperature firing, the dynamics of a good soda firing clay, and his recent project A Year of Shared Intention, which mixes shared mindfulness with art making.

Today on the Tales of a Red Clay Rambler Podcast I have an interview with Kate Johnston. She uses local materials to make highly decorated pots that are fired in a wood kiln outside of Seagrove, NC. Her work is boldly patterned with botanical imagery drawn from art deco design. In our interview we talk about developing design rules to guide one’s work in the studio, the romance of NC pottery traditions, techniques for making large pots, and the benefits of competition and cooperation in a tight-knit pottery community like Seagrove.

Today on the Tales of a Red Clay Rambler Podcast I have an interview with Tom Lauerman, an artist and educator who is working with a consortium of over 200 researchers to develop personal protective equipment for medical personnel during the COVID-19 outbreak. In our interview we talk about the evolution of PPE designs and how rapid prototyping using 3D printers has made daily progress possible. We also discuss the ideas behind Tom’s ceramic sculpture and his work as an educator at Penn State University.

Today on the Tales of a Red Clay Rambler Podcast I have an interview with Jonathan Barnes, who teaches ceramics, printmaking and art appreciation at the St. Pete College Clearwater campus. In our interview we talk about responding to COVID-19 in the classroom and best practices for teaching art online. We also discuss his personal response to the pandemic, which has been to 3D print personal protective equipment for medical professionals in the Tampa Bay area.

Today on the Tales of a Red Clay Rambler Podcast I have an interview with Kerianne Quick and Adam John Manley. Both are makers with studio practices steeped in craft, as well as professors of art in the Metals and Wood Departments at San Diego State University. In our interview we talk about their approach to materials, the concepts behind their recent bodies of work, and Craft Desert, a zine focused on craft in the Southwest that they co-edit.

Today on the Tales of a Red Clay Rambler Podcast I have an interview with Kelly Schnorr. She is an artist and educator based in the San Diego area where she teaches ceramics at Coronado High School. We talk about time management, effective teaching methods for high school age students, and how to design a studio that can cycle through over one hundred and fifty students each day. In addition to her teaching Kelly makes ceramic sculpture about the consumption and disposability built into modern capitalist societies.

Today on the Tales of a Red Clay Rambler Podcast I have an interview with Brian Jones. His functional work explores line, color and mark making in earthenware. In 2011 he started The Jonescast, a podcast devoted to exploring what it means to be an artist while juggling life and work. This influential show ran for over sixty episodes and influenced a wave of ceramic related podcasts. For many years Brian has been making mugs for comedian Marc Maron, who gives them to the guests on his podcast WTF with Marc Maron and sells them to his audience. In our interview we talk about refining your craft and staying present in the making process, the role of podcasting in documenting the field of ceramics, and learning how to be more empathetic.

Today on the Tales of a Red Clay Rambler Podcast I have an interview with Jordan McDonald. Raised in the suburbs of Toronto, Jordan now lives in West Philadelphia where he makes functional pottery decorated with motifs drawn from historical painting and ceramics. To compliment his studio practice, he started the Pots in Words Instagram feed which features written descriptions of historical pots. He uses these as a jumping off point for imagination and innovation in his studio practice. In our interview we talk about the influence of Walter Ostrom, his love of the artist Rosanjin and working with interior designers.

Today on the Tales of a Red Clay Rambler Podcast I have an interview with Sam Harvey. He came to Colorado’s Roaring Fork Valley to take a workshop at Anderson Ranch in the mid 1990’s, which began a long relationship that continues to this day including time as a studio coordinator, a board member, and an instructor. His studio practice includes pinched vessels that are decorated with geometric shapes and works on paper. In addition to his studio practice he has been a gallery director for more than a decade and has been instrumental in promoting ceramics in the Aspen, CO area. In our interview we talk about his relationship with Betty Woodman, surviving in the competitive Aspen art market, and what artists should focus on in order to have a successful career in ceramics.

Today on the Tales of a Red Clay Rambler Podcast I have an interview with Louise Deroualle. After an early interest in functional work, Louise has shifted to landscape-oriented wall work and sculptures that reference seed pods. The work is unified by a lichen-like glaze technique that involves putting refractory slips over the top of fluid glazes. In our interview we talk about growing up in San Paulo, Brazil, turning towards abstraction to convey emotion, and managing interns in a bustling workshop setting.

Today on the Tales of a Red Clay Rambler Podcast I have an interview with Daniel Dallabrida. After a long career in public relations Dallabrida turned to art as a form of visual storytelling, narrating the opinions he could not express in the corporate world. He draws from his experience living through the AIDS crisis to create video, installations, and sculpture that illustrate the effect the disease had on San Francisco’s gay community. In our interview we talk about AIDS-related Multiple Loss Syndrome, blending Greek myths with personal experience to create narratives, and reclaiming LGBTQ slurs through art making.

Today on the Tales of a Red Clay Rambler Podcast I have an interview with HP Bloomer. His functional ceramics are decorated with layers of pattern before being fired in atmospheric kilns to enhance their surfaces. In our interview we talk about how complexity in his making process keeps him engaged, learning to self-edit, and methods for pattern making.

Today on the Tales of a Red Clay Rambler Podcast I have an interview with Louise Cort. After traveling to Japan on an exchange program in high school, Louise developed a love for everyday functional objects. This fascination led her to a PHD in ceramic history from Oxford and then onto nearly fifty years of research and curatorial work in museums. Forty of those years was spent working for the Smithsonian Institution’s Freer and Sackler Galleries where she was the curator of ceramics. In the interview we talk about her research into Japanese and Southeast Asian ceramics, how the display of an object creates meaning, and how museums are evolving as cultural awareness shifts.