Brian R. Jonescast

Andy Furgeson is an Austin, TX native and currently lives and performs in the Portland, OR area. He is a children's performer who weaves American folk songs into his routine, and, with some help from his puppets, introduces traditional music to a young audience. Andy's musical background, singing at church as a kid, and playing in punk, rockabilly, and bluegrass bands inform his current style and sense of showmanship. He brings the rock. Enjoy. 

Mo Phillips is a Portland, OR musician who plays primarily for children. Mo plays his music from a rock-heavy backgound. Think Wilco, the Pixies, and Fugazi. His experience as a father to two children lends itself to his music, naturally, and his ability to be comfortable in silliness is infectious. This is a talk between two dads who work in a creative field. Enjoy.

  Richard Hensley is a studio potter in Floyd, VA. I've known Rick since 2003, and in that time I've seen him evolve his work at a regular and enviable pace. He is a consummate craftsman, confident in his ability and willing to take risks. He's deeply knowledgeable about ceramics (chemically, technically, and historically), and I think more people should know his work. He makes some of my favorite pots and when I use or see them they always make me want to do better. Enjoy!

Silvie Granatelli has been a studio potter in Floyd, VA since 1982. The story of her life has all the ups and downs of anyone working in a creative field, and  through it all she has successfully built a lifelong career in clay. Silvie was, and is, a mentor of mine, and she is a very special part of my life and a special guest on this program. Enjoy.

Dwight Holland founded the NC Potter's Conference, which celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2012. He's also collected pots, hundreds and hundreds of them, for the past 60 years. Ben Carter and I had the opportunity to talk to Mr. Holland about his collection, his life in Asheboro, and what Seagrove means within the global ceramic scale. This podcast is brought to you by the NC Potter's Conference and the Randolph Arts Guild.

The collector (and writer, professor, raconteur, etc.) Richard Jacobs and the British ceramic artist Gareth Mason held forth at The Clay Studio in Philadelphia earlier this year. Their discussion, a performance really, is taken from excerpts of their jointly authored book More is More.

  Brian Harper is a leader within the quickly arriving younger generation of American ceramic artists. In 2006 he started artaxis, a database of ceramic artists, which since become an important piece of ceramic education and networking. Along with his digital foundation within the field Brian also teaches full time at Indiana University Southeast and he maintains a studio practice. Brian is also the founder of The Open Crowd Project a collaborative 3D printing project that uses 3D scanning and printing technology to print groups of people spread out by large distances. We talk about the importance of being connected, taking cues from mentors, and how miniscule events can be the catalyst for larger changes.   

Jeff Oestreich has been a mainstay in American ceramics for almost 40 years. Working from his home in Minnesota, Jeff has influenced countless makers and continues to advance his work at his own pace. We sat down back in December in Portland, OR and talked about his time working for Bernard Leach, setting up his early studios, and how his life has played out since.

Ryan LaBar is currently the program director at LH Project in Joseph, OR. We met up while Ryan was in Portland for a night on his way back home from Germany. His work has been exhibited extensively, most recently at NCECA in Houston, TX. He's been a resident at the Archie Bray Foundation, Gaya Ceramic Arts Center, Ubud, Bali, and received his MFA from the University of Nebraska - Lincoln in 2010. This one covers a lot: spirituality, the conscious vs unconscious, how he ships his work, and LH Project. Dig in and enjoy!

Ian Anderson is the Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dean of the College at the Maine College of Art. He's a busy man (also married to the great Kari Radasch), and one of my favorite people. Ian has an MFA from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, where I first met him, has worked as a studio assistant for Silvie Granatelli, started a line of functional pottery (Neutrino), and has been at MECA for the past few years. Ian has an exceptional ability to communicate ideas and processes, as well as inspire students, that place him somewhere between artist, educator, and administrator. He's engaged, informed, and actively trying to bring art and design education further into the 21st century. We cover a lot in this one, enjoy.

Janice Jakielski makes beautiful work. It's that simple. And she's a self-described 10%'er (90% non-ceramic material), which brings her a certain suspicion in the sometimes narrow minded ceramic world. She talks about her inclination to keep moving around (New Mexico, Colorado, Japan, Massachusetts are just a few of the places she's lived in), her foundation as an artist who worked in multiple media, and living in a castle. Enjoy!

Nicole Aquillano used to work for the government in the EPA. And she used to bust punk industrial companies for polluting the earth. Trained as an engineer, she kept herself active in the studio as well. Over time, Nicole realized that what she wanted to do was to make pots. And now she does. We talk about her experience working for The Man, the transition into full time studio pottery, and how an image can activate deep and emotional parts of who we are...among other things. Enjoy!

I remember watching Kathy King demo at NCECA in 2002. I was listening to her talk and watching her work (I think she had a beer while working away up on that stage...or maybe that's myth), and I thought: "Someday, I'm going to talk to that woman on a form of communication that hasn't been invented yet and then distribute it via another technology that also hasn't been invented yet." And it's happened. I was Kathy's guest last month while I spent a few days in Boston, and she was kind enough to have me at Harvard ceramics as a visiting artist. Kathy's background is as varied as anyone I've talked to on this program. She's done a lot of work early on in her career learning about the material on her own, and that scrappiness has found its usefulness as her career has developed over the years. She's gone from academia to the craft circuit and back again...with a lot of life in between. Enjoy this talk, it's a good one.

Nate Query is a founding member of The Decemberists and in that role has appeared on The Tonight Show, The Colbert Report, Late Night with Conan O'Brien, the top of the billboard 200, and countless live shows. He is also a member of Black Prairie, a band comprised of most of The Decemberists along with a few other musicians (Annalisa Tornfelt and Jon Neufeld to be exact), which has been gathering steam as of late (they've also been on The Tonight Show). We talk about Nate's early forays into music, the influence that jazz has had on him, and what it's like to be on the road in a "big" band and a "small" one. He also knows how to brew some good beer.  Enjoy!

Jen Allen has been a very visible potter on the national scene for the past several years. I met her last year at the Utilitarian Clay Conference at Arrowmont, which was right after my daughter was born and a few months before Jen had her first child. This is a "new parent heavy" episode, and rightly so. The world that Jen and I live in, and try to make work in, has been so fundamentally changed that we can't but help to talk about how much things have changed. None of this is new to people who have children who are grown or are older than toddler age. But it is to us, and when we sat down the natural inclination was to check in with each other (and ourselves). We talk about what success means for us now, how to go about improving work with so much else on our plates, and keeping up momentum. Great talk! Enjoy!

Namita Wiggers is the director and chief curator at the Museum of Contemporary Craft in Portland, OR. For the past several years she has worked tirelessly at presenting craft in engaging, informative, and sometimes confusing (the good kind) ways. She strives to make the Museum a place where an audience can see the connections between ideas, process, and product. Not an easy road for a field usually content with the old "object-on-a-plinth" mentality. The next time you're in Portland, stop by the Museum and see what Namita has going on. She's a powerhouse.

I first met Sanam as an undergraduate back in 2000. She was a graduate student at Alfred and since that time I have followed her work. She came over to the house while visiting Portland and we talked about setting boundaries with students, the depth of beauty, complexity and simplicity in Islamic art, and history as a freeing element in the studio. Sanam currently teaches at Colorado State University in Ft. Collins, CO.

Daniel Duford is a Portland artist and educator. The range of materials he uses to make his work (comic books, pottery, printmaking) reflects his interest in working from a place outside of what might be considered the "normal" art world. His interest in storytelling and investigations into myth and history has led him to working in a larger scale to better envelope the audience. We cover a lot in this one: pissing off Ken Price, being Catholic, comic books, the traditional lack of curiosity within ceramics and craft, and the role of myth and history within American culture.

Dan Anderson taught for 32 years at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville before retiring in 2002. Since then he's been a full-time studio potter, actively making and exploring ideas about architecture, decals, and historic personalities. Dan has had a rich life and during his career he's been fortunate to come into close contact with major ceramics artists, such as Peter Voulkos and Toshiko Takaezu. He also talks about growing up in Minnesota, working at his family's grocery store, and his two brushes with cancer, among other pieces of his life. Dan's full of stories, he's a raconteur and he's a great interview. Enjoy!

Michael Strand is an artist interested in setting up circumstances for people to be able to tell their stories. In his own words: "One of the great joys of being an artist is the ability to dream without limitations and then acting on those dreams without the fear of failure. With this mindset I can imagine that a cup could be infused with the spirit of the late Charles Kuralt, branching out into the country to seek out stories waiting to be told, or that a cup could hold the potential of the great Desmond Tutu, and be integral in conversations of mediation. Without practical limitations on function I am free to conceptualize how an object can operate in new and innovative ways." Indeed, Michael's work finishes the puzzle of functional ceramics. He makes the connection between maker, object, and user engaging and more importantly, vital.