Today on the Tales of a Red Clay Rambler Podcast I have an interview with Kaitlyn Brennan. Based in Merrickville, ON, she makes a line of terracotta pottery decorated with vibrant floral patterns and pop imagery. In our interview we talk about avenues for Canadians to learn ceramics, wholesaling to Canada-made shops, and her love of roller derby. In addition to her studio practice, she is the director of the Gloucester Pottery School, which offers ceramic classes in the Ottawa area.

Today on the Tales of a Red Clay Rambler Podcast I have an interview with Julie Moon. A multi-talented maker based in Toronto, Moon makes sculptural forms approaching the human body from different perspectives. In the past she frequently sculpted the figure but now makes more amorphous forms that become canvases for geometric patterns. In our interview we talk about her time working in fashion, how to balance vibrant colors, and letting a work in process evolve over time.

Today on the Tales of a Red Clay Rambler Podcast I have an interview with Magdolene Dykstra. Her raw clay sculptures depict a shifting biosphere of cells morphing to fill the environment they inhabit. The work highlights both the micro and macro effects of overpopulation and centers around the question “What is the role of the individual within the horde”? In our interview we talk about the concept of Polyanthroponemia, building large scale works with press molded parts, and using ceramic pigments for works on paper.

Today on the Tales of a Red Clay Rambler Podcast I have an interview with Martina Lantin. Over the past twenty years she has explored many facets of terracotta pottery, drawing from Italian Renaissance maiolica and Persian slipware. In our interview we talk about her passion for terracotta, developing patterns under and over glazes, and stewarding the acclaimed ceramics program at the Alberta University of the Arts in Calgary.

Today on the Tales of a Red Clay Rambler Podcast I have an interview with Amy Smith. Her porcelain pots are decorated with female nudes delicately drawn with slip inlay. The translucent glazes pull the cobalt out of the inlay accentuating the movement of hair, hips and other aspects of the pose. In our interview we talk about the emotive power of the drawn figure and how running and movement influence her work.

Today on the Tales of a Red Clay Rambler Podcast I have an interview with Adrienne Eliades. From her Vancouver, Washington studio she makes highly decorated functional pots that draw from mid-century modern patterns and aesthetics. In our interview we talk about developing confidence as a teacher, using die-cut stencils, and her role as program coordinator for Idyllwild’s Hot Clay summer program.

Today on the Tales of a Red Clay Rambler Podcast I have an interview with Janet Koplos. A noted critic and writer, Janet has published over 2000 articles and essays since she started writing about art in 1976. From 1990 to 2009 she was senior editor at Art in America and has authored numerous books, including her most recent What Makes a Potter: Functional Pottery in America Today. In our interview we talk about the role of the critic in our time, the key to editing other writers’ words, and documenting the lives of over fifty potters for her book.

Today on the Tales of a Red Clay Rambler Podcast I have an interview with Ryan Wilson Kelly. He works in both clay and papier-mache to make figure sculptures and vessels that are theatrically staged within narrative scenes. In this interview we talk about the influence of puppetry, essentializing facial expressions, and how humor can be an entry point for narrative sculpture.

Today on the Tales of a Red Clay Rambler Podcast I have an interview with Cassils. Their performance-based work often utilizes physical force and exertion as a metaphor for struggle and survival. In our interview we talk about creating pieces that are in dialogue with past artists, the role the audience plays as observer within a performance, and how they use their body as both a material and tool in their work.

Today on the Tales of a Red Clay Rambler Podcast I have an interview with curator and scholar Paul Greenhalgh. His recently published book Ceramic Art and Civilisation establishes a historical through line linking four transformative eras into a larger history that explains how ceramics helped civilizations flourish. In our interview we talk about the great aesthetic transformers (Mediterranean classical era, the Middle East, China, and the modern era), how museums structure the public’s understanding of history, and why skill remains an important aspect of art history.

Today on the Tales of a Red Clay Rambler Podcast I have an interview with Juan Barroso. His ceramic forms are decorated with finely painted pointillist images of family members and objects that link to childhood memories and immigrant narratives. In our interview we talk about taking the “handyman” approach to art making, how pointillism stands as a metaphor for labor, and how art is a conduit for expressing emotion.

Today on the Tales of a Red Clay Rambler Podcast I have an interview with curator and scholar Wendy Gers. She has curated numerous international exhibitions including the First Central China International Ceramics Biennale in 2016 and the Taiwan Ceramics Biennale in 2014. In our interview we talk about the dynamics of curating, her award-winning exhibition Post Colonialism?, and how ceramic studios might join the Green movement by applying best practices for environmental management.

Today on the Tales of a Red Clay Rambler Podcast I have an interview with Mark Shapiro. He is a noted potter and author of ceramic history based in western Massachusetts. In this interview we focus on his research into Thomas Commeraw, one of the most important potters working in New York City in the early 1800’s. We discuss the iconic Oyster jars that are attributed to his studio, his political and religious life within the African American community, and his participation in a tumultuous colonial project in Sierra Leone.

Today on the Tales of a Red Clay Rambler Podcast I have an interview with Natalia Arbelaez. Her terracotta sculptures often involve figures interacting with one another or conveying emotion with their facial expressions. She draws from her Colombian family’s immigration story to tell a larger cultural history of hybridization that is a result of migration. In our interview we talk about activating ceramic objects through performance, and the research and art making she has been doing around artists of color in museum collections.

Today on the Tales of a Red Clay Rambler Podcast I have an interview with Brett Kern. His ceramic sculptures of dinosaurs and spacemen are tied to his love of collectable toys and pop culture nostalgia. In our interview we talk about making slip cast molds from the inflatables he creates, dealing with flippers who buy his work to resell on eBay, and his recent exhibition The Lost World. The yearlong exhibition at the Erie Art Museum featured sculptures of Rocky, E.T., and other 1980’s icons rendered in a Hellenistic style.

Today on the Tales of a Red Clay Rambler Podcast I have an interview with Masa Sasaki. His functional pots are decorated with vibrant color schemes emphasizing motifs of deer, one-eyed aliens and punctuation marks, forming a cryptic biography for the viewer to decode. In the interview we talk about the meaning behind his symbols, how previous professions helped build skills for his ceramic career and developing a market for his work.

Noted Navajo sculptor and ceramic artist Christine McHorse died earlier this week. She was born in 1948 in Morenci, Arizona and started working full-time in the arts after attending the Institute of American Indian Arts in Sante Fe in the 1960’s. At the school she met her husband Joel and learned to make ceramics in the Pueblo style from his family. After more than two decades selling at the Santa Fe Indian Market, she transitioned into a style of sculptural vessels that drew national and international acclaim. In our interview we talk about shifting her work into the fine art world and developing her forms in micaceous clay and bronze.

Today on the Tales of a Red Clay Rambler Podcast I have an interview with Jessica Putnam Phillips. Jessica creates objects that are decorated with depictions of women in combat situations juxtaposed against floral patterns from historical dinnerware. She uses the pairing to question and contrast the role women play in both domestic and public service. In our interview we talk about using art to personalize military experience, how creative work can help service members deal with stress-related disorders, and ClayShare, an online ceramic education platform that she founded in 2017.

Today on the Tales of a Red Clay Rambler Podcast I have an interview with Mandy Kolahi. She co-founded POT, a community studio in Los Angeles, to create a safe space for artists of color and other marginalized groups to work in ceramics. In our interview we talk about how the founding principles of equality guided the growth of the studio, how they have pivoted their programming since the pandemic, and how studios like POT can break the opportunity cycle for the next generation of artists.

Today on the Tales of a Red Clay Rambler Podcast I have an interview with Larissa Warren. She is based in Tamborine Mountain in southeast Queensland, Australia where she uses the Nerikomi process to make ceramic vessels that reference geological strata. In addition to her ceramic practice, she has been researching the raw clays that are native to her surrounding area and the potters that have used them dating back to the 1940’s including the Morris sisters, Doris Aagaard, and Frances Carnegie. In our interview we talk about searching for raw clays, the history of past generations of Queensland potters, and the impact these women had on their rural mountain community.