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

Today on the Tales of a Red Clay Rambler Podcast I have a rebroadcast of a 2015 interview with an icon of the American studio pottery movement, Warren Mackenzie. After an early apprenticeship at the Leach Pottery in St. Ives, Cornwall (1949-1952), Mackenzie became a ceramic professor at the University of Minnesota (1953-1990). During his nearly four-decade tenure at the school, he influenced gener...

Today on the Tales of a Red Clay Rambler Podcast I have an interview with Liz Zlot Summerfield. Her hand-built pottery is created in small groups, or collections, using color and pattern to create visual interplay between the forms. She says of the idea, "Within a collection, everyday objects have the ability to gain importance as members of a whole. They start to become more than the sum of their...

Today on the Tales of a Red Clay Rambler Podcast I have an interview with Marty Fielding. His ceramic vessels live at the scale of domestic pottery, but often feel monumental with their architectural volumes and angles. In our interview we talk about his love of Frank Gehry's architecture, building up layers of underglaze to create abstract fields of color, and how music has shaped his creative pr...

Today on the Tales of a Red Clay Rambler Podcast I have an interview with Amy Sanders. Her hand-built pottery is decorated with stamped patterns and layers of terra sigillata that refer to her love of vintage clothing and fabric. In our interview we talk about developing low fire surfaces, using the 80% rule in the studio and the value of an artist's group. Amy is a member of Thrown Together, a gr...

Today on the Tales of a Red Clay Rambler Podcast I have an interview with Ronan Peterson. The surface of his pottery is decorated with colorful terra sigillatas and bright glazes that reference the cycle of growth and decay in the natural world. In our interview we talk about the influence of comic books on his aesthetic, learning to critique his pottery, and pushing a body of work until it lives...

Today on the Tales of a Red Clay Rambler Podcast I have a live episode featuring Liz Zlot Summerfield, Ronan Peterson, Amy Sanders and Marty Fielding. Our wide-ranging conversation includes advocating for handmade through arts education, creating engaging low fire surfaces and why potters seem to dress like their pots. This episode was taped in front of a live audience as part of the Red Handed Sy...

Today on the Tales of a Red Clay Rambler Podcast I have a lecture by noted potter and educator Linda Arbuckle on the merits of low fire terracotta. She delivered this talk as the keynote speech at the Red Handed Symposium, held in May of 2018 in Nashville, TN. In her lecture Linda talks about her introduction to terracotta at the Cleveland Art Institute, historic traditions who worked with low fir...

Today on the Tales of a Red Clay Rambler Podcast I have an interview with Richard Stratton. He uses late 19th century industrial ceramic techniques to make sculptural vessels that are steeped in the aesthetics of modernist architecture. In our interview we talk about how mud larking on the banks of the Thames reignited his interest in English industrial ceramics, the importance of research on aest...

Today on the Tales of a Red Clay Rambler Podcast I have an interview with Nicole Kolig. Nicole's studio and farm are nestled into the side of an extinct cinder cone volcano that rises above the surrounding Otago Peninsula outside of Dunedin, NZ. In our interview we talk about harvesting local ceramic materials for sculpture, the history of the Ceramic Association of New Zealand, and her time worki...

Today on the Tales of a Red Clay Rambler Podcast I have an interview with Cheryl Lucas. Throughout her ceramic career she has worked in many formats including functional pottery, sculptural installation and architectural work. In 2011 multiple earthquakes hit her home area of Christchurch, devastating the city and creating a turning point in Cheryl's work. She has reacted to the destruction and su...

Today on the Tales of a Red Clay Rambler Podcast I have an interview with Tatyanna Meharry and Gwen Parsons. A large part of our interview focuses on Otago Polytechnic's Diploma in Ceramic Arts program, which is a distance learning program with satellite campuses across New Zealand. Tatyanna is the head of the Christchurch satellite, where she facilitates a two-year program guiding students throug...

Today on the Tales of a Red Clay Rambler Podcast I have an interview with Chris Weaver. After rediscovering his grandmother's Iron, he started making teapots that referenced its angular form. This has led to twenty-five years of exploring the form through a variety of firing techniques and forming methods. In our interview we talk about incorporating wooden parts into his functional ceramics, keep...

Today on the Tales of a Red Clay Rambler Podcast I have an interview with Michael O'Donnell. A longtime resident of the Coromandel region, Michael is an environmental advocate that uses ceramic sculpture to tell the story of the local ecology. His role as clay worker, story teller and spiritual seeker has been spurred on in defiance of multinational mining corporations that are working in the regi...

Today on the Tales of a Red Clay Rambler Podcast I have an interview with Duncan Shearer. His interest in atmospheric firing has led him to build kilns from nontraditional materials, such as wood blocks, telephone directories and ice. These performance firings captivate audiences and have informed the kilns he has built at his studio in Paeroa, NZ. In our interview we talk about firing as a commun...

Today on the Tales of a Red Clay Rambler Podcast I have an interview with Greg Barron. In the 1970's he started building his own ceramic processing equipment to make plastic clays for use in his studio. He applied this same ingenuity to build an energy efficient home and studio in Whangarei, NZ, that is made from compressed adobe and other ceramic materials. In our interview we talk about the effe...

Today on the Tales of a Red Clay Rambler Podcast I have an interview with Jack Troy, Carolanne Currier and Amy Burk. We came together at the home studio of Jack and Carolanne to talk about their careers in ceramics. We had a wide-ranging discussion on wood kiln technology, the founding of the ceramic program at Juniata College, Jack's passion for writing and the ceramic history of the region. We e...

Today on the Tales of a Red Clay Rambler Podcast I have an interview with Cynthia Bringle. Since moving to Penland, NC in 1970 she has become a pillar of the art community, influencing many generations of artists and helping the Penland School of Craft to become a mecca for ceramics. In our interview we talk about educating your audience on the value of handmade, the evolution of studio pottery si...

Today on the Tales of a Red Clay Rambler Podcast I have an interview with King Houndekpinkou. King is a Franco-Beninese artist, based in Paris, who makes sculptural vessels that are covered with rich amorphous surfaces created by layering slips and glazes. In 2016 he started the Terra Jumelles project matching pottery centers in Se, Benin with partners in Bizen, Japan. The sister city format aims...

Today on the Tales of a Red Clay Rambler Podcast I have an interview with Keith Brymer Jones. He started his career with an apprenticeship at Harefield Pottery in London, where he learned high production methods of producing hand made pottery. After learning the business, he started his own pottery selling through major retailers like Barney's of New York and Heals of London. The Keith Brymer Jone...

Today on the Tales of a Red Clay Rambler Podcast I have an interview with Kelly Austin and Joey Burns. Both are emerging artists that are establishing themselves in the Australian ceramic community. Austin is based in Hobart, Tasmania, where she teaches at TasTAFE and maintains an active studio practice. Burns splits time as the studio technician for the Ernabella Arts Center in Ernabella, South A...

Today on the Tales of a Red Clay Rambler Podcast I have an interview with Owen Rye. An elder statesman of the Australian ceramic community, Owen has made significant contributions through his research into wood firing and his time teaching at Monash University. Before starting his studio practice he spent ten years documenting the ceramic practices of Pakistani potters laying a foundation for a PH...

Today on the Tales of a Red Clay Rambler Podcast I have an interview with Glenn Barkley. He served as the head curator of the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia from 2008–14 and curator of the University of Wollongong Art Collection 1996–2007. During these years he developed a curatorial style that questioned art world hierarchies by showing artists outside the mainstream, focusing specifically...

Today on the Tales of a Red Clay Rambler Podcast I have an interview with Daniel Johnston. Based in Seagrove, NC, Daniel is an compelling mix between a traditionally trained potter and a contemporary artist who makes ceramic vessels to utilize their conceptual potential. He studied under NC pottery luminaries J.B. Cole and Mark Hewitt before traveling to Thailand to learn large vessel making. His...

Today on the Tales of a Red Clay Rambler Podcast I have an interview with figure sculptor Tip Toland. In the interview we talk about her 2014 Portland Art Museum exhibition, which featured Tanzanian children that are both revered and persecuted because they have Albinism. For the exhibition Toland created twelve larger than life size busts that show the complex emotional landscape of persecuted pe...

Today on the Tales of a Red Clay Rambler Podcast I have the second of two interviews with John Gill. In this episode we continue with a conversation about the lineage of teachers at Alfred and discuss how John's dyslexia has influenced his creative problem solving. John is one of the truly unique thinkers and educators in American ceramics. Gill started teaching at the New York State College of Ce...