Tales of a Red Clay Rambler: A pottery and ceramic art podcast

Today on the Tales of a Red Clay Rambler Podcast I have an interview with Graham Taylor. Taylor's historical ceramic reproductions are featured in cultural institutions forming a gateway for viewers to understand the methods, techniques, and lives of past civilizations. In our interview we talk about his training in the Cardew lineage and how this led him to manage the Kolonyama pottery in Lesotho...

Today on the Tales of a Red Clay Rambler Podcast I have an interview with Jennifer Ling Datchuk. She was raised in a bicultural household and makes sculpture, installation, and performance art that address identity and womanhood. In our interview we talk about the role hair and self-objectification play in her performance art, working in Jingdezhen, and how her understanding of identity changes th...

Today on the Tales of a Red Clay Rambler Podcast I have an interview with cultural historian Bob Batchelor. He has written on diverse subjects ranging from comic icon Stan Lee to prohibition era bourbon boss George Remus and has recently published an illustrated history of Rookwood Pottery. In our interview we talk about the life and work of founder Maria Longworth Nichols Storer, the role star de...

Today on the Tales of a Red Clay Rambler Podcast I have an interview with Audra Doughty. She has used her business Mud Queen Pottery to create a thriving community of ceramic enthusiasts in the Harrisburg, PA area. After Pennsylvania reopened in-person businesses she adapted her classroom to make it safe for students to learn in-person while social distancing. In our interview we talk about renova...

Today on the Tales of a Red Clay Rambler Podcast I have an interview with Lindsay Montgomery. Her Italian inspired maiolica ceramics function as narrative paintings highlighting the social ills of our time including topics of environmental degradation, the patriarchy, and wealth inequality. Drawing from ceramics and paintings of the early Renaissance she often uses demonic figures and hellscapes t...

Today on the Tales of a Red Clay Rambler Podcast I have an interview with Walter Ostrom. Originally recorded in the summer of 2015 this interview is being rebroadcast in celebration of Clay Week. I made a playlist featuring five archival releases that relate to the themes of Clay Week. This episode fits with Teaching Tuesday. Through his almost forty-year teaching career at the Nova Scotia College...

Today on the Tales of a Red Clay Rambler Podcast I have an interview with Ann Carrington. Based in Margate, UK, Ann makes sculpture using tin cans, flatware, and other metal objects that reference the peculiarities of British material and popular culture. I first saw her work last year when I saw one of her bouquets made from dozens of spoons shaped into delicate floral shapes. In our interview we...

Today on the Tales of a Red Clay Rambler Podcast I have an interview with Jamie Bates Slone. She draws from her own experience with mental illness to create figurative sculpture that addresses disease and resilience. In our interview we talk about the psychology of color, how body positioning in sculpture can create empathy, and being a role model for young women. Slone is an assistant professor a...

Today on the Tales of a Red Clay Rambler Podcast I have an interview with Sara Truman. After teaching in a variety of classroom environments she has been focused for the past seven years on being a high school ceramics teacher. In our interview we talk about mentoring students inside and outside of the classroom, the founding of the Intersections think tank for K-12 art educators, and starting a c...

Today on the Tales of a Red Clay Rambler Podcast I have an interview with Sharif Bey. Bey has extensive experience in ceramics/sculpture, art community programming, and art teacher training, all of which he utilizes in his role as an associate professor of Art Education at Syracuse University. His recent work includes figurative sculpture and large-scale ceramic necklaces that address identity and...

Today on the Tales of a Red Clay Rambler Podcast I have an interview with Guillermo Cuellar. In 1986 he established a pottery outside of Caracas, Venezuela, which he ran for sixteen years before deciding to relocate to Shafer, Minnesota. In our interview we talk about his time working with the World Wildlife Fund, developing a market for his ceramics in Venezuela and the United States, and the inf...

Today on the Tales of a Red Clay Rambler Podcast I have an interview with Mike Cinelli. He blends the aesthetics of sci-fi with Greek myths to create pottery with rich aged surfaces. In our interview we talk about parenting in the time of COVID, developing design rules to give creativity structure, and using color triads from comic books to create visual punch on the surface of pots. To see exampl...

Today on the Tales of a Red Clay Rambler Podcast I have an interview with Diana Benavidez, who builds piñatas that reflect her binational identity as an artist in the San Diego/Tijuana border region. She often places her work in installation formats with multimedia and technological aspects that help her craft stories about place and culture. In our interview we talk about growing up on both sides...

Today on the Tales of a Red Clay Rambler Podcast I have an interview with public historian and museum executive Christy S. Coleman. Her museum career started at seventeen portraying enslaved women at Colonial Williamsburg in their living history educational program. She went on to be the Director of Historic Programs before becoming the CEO of multiple institutions including the Charles H. Wright...

Today on the Tales of a Red Clay Rambler Podcast I have an interview with Agnes Barton-Sabo, also known as Betty Turbo. Her humorous, vivid illustrations meld advertisements for food and daily necessities with social justice messages and words of encouragement. In our interview we talk about taking up papier-mâché sculpture during the pandemic, design tips she learned while working at Hatch Show P...

Today on the Tales of a Red Clay Rambler Podcast I have an interview with Ashleigh Christelis. Based in Johannesburg, SA Christelis's career includes a variety of ceramic bodies of work and long-term teaching of ceramic classes in her local community. In the interview we talk about learning through apprenticeship, how COVID 19 has affected Johannesburg, and balancing work with the need for rest an...

Today on the Tales of a Red Clay Rambler Podcast I have an interview with Mitchell Spain. Through meticulous craftsmanship he makes functional objects that appear to be rusted tin cans and farm detritus that has been stuck in a family barn since the Great Depression. In our interview we talk about addressing environmentalism through satirical imagery, refining a glaze that mimics rust, and how the...

Today on the Tales of a Red Clay Rambler Podcast I have an interview with Carleigh Queenth. Through her position as the specialist head of European ceramics and glass at the Christie's Auction House in New York City, she researches, documents, and facilitates the sale of historical porcelain. In our interview we talk about the sale cycle of an auction house, the European quest for porcelain, and t...

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...

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 medic...

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 and the hesitance to take up the fight for social justice in favor of slow reforms....

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, art...

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...

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." To find out more...

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 t...