Ayris: In the past, your work has played with text. What inspired the use of text in your work, and what are some of the challenges you come across when incorporating text into your pieces?
Maureen Mills: I continue to use text in my work as graphic element. I thought long and hard about whether the text should be readable or if it should say something or copy some other text. But in the end it’s not about what it says but that the viewer recognizes it as writing, and then they approach the work differently, looking for a story or bringing their story to the piece.
MM: Recent work has been exploring the moon jar form- orb like forms that are stretched from the inside only after the surfaces have been textured.
A: Is there a certain rhythm to how you work? What does a typical day of work look like for you?
MM: When I have time in the studio, I typically make work for a few days, incorporating a couple different forms or sizes of work. And as work begins to dry I start to lay out patterns and designs. Because the techniques I use require different drynesses of the pieces, I work on multiples of any given form so that the layers can be built up as needed.
A: What are some current projects that you are working on?
MM: I am participating in an international symposium with the International Society of Ceramic Art Education and Exchange (ISCAEE) this summer on a trip to South Korea. I’ll be doing a workshop and presenting a lecture. I’m doing the lecture with Jennifer Markmanrud, a recent graduate from our program. We wrote an article last summer for Studio Potter Journal titled Mentor/ Mentee Experience about a workshop we took together at North Country Studio Workshops
A: What are some new challenges and formal constraints that you are setting for your work?
MM: I’m not sure there is any great evolution. Ancient forms and techniques were just as complex and innovative as they are today and frankly much is still the same.
A: In other words, how do you keep finding new and inventive ways to keep challenging yourself as an artist?
MM: By making work! One thing leads to another. In fact, a couple years ago I wasn’t interested in working on the potter’s wheel so I spent the better part of two years doing handbuilding. Because approaching the surface work on those pieces was so different than on the wheel (I decorated surfaces before building with slabs as opposed to throwing forms and then decorating) it changed my work when I returned to the wheel.
A: What are the different challenges you come across in creating a functional piece vs a decorative piece?
MM: Functional work takes additional attention to form in that a rim on a cup has to beg for lips to drink from it and a teapot spout has to pour smoothly and be balanced properly. But regardless of purpose, each form must be considered fully, addressing how a bottom is finished to the edge of the rim.
A: As someone who also has a degree in Chemistry, do you think there are separations and overlaps between science and art? In other words, do you find that there is a line where art and science blur? Is art ever dependent upon science?
MM: Sure they blur. We use the scientific inquiry process all the time- we ask questions, we pose solutions, we try them out, we evaluate the results and apply that to the next thing! Both science and art are about developing a process of inquiry that feeds our need to create, whether that is more scientific experimentation or designing a new teapot form. There is plenty of science in the studio including math, physics, chemistry and geology. You have to be a little interested in all of those things when you work with clay!
A: In creative work, do you believe there really is such thing as mastery, or does each individual project demand a new understanding and development of skills? Why or why not?
MM: I think there is mastery, but there continues to be learning. Just today I did something in a way I never have before. Not earth shattering, but a new form demanded a different process and I had enough mastery of my material and process to trust that a new approach would work.
A: How would you define quality? In your opinion, what elements separate an amateur piece from a masterpiece?
MM: Deliberate action in every aspect. Addressing finishing from bottom to rim, including how a piece is signed. Not just settling for an outcome but deliberately approaching that result. You can tell the difference.
A: You have been working in the field of ceramics for quite some time now. For you, what would you say has been the greatest evolution of form in ceramics?
