[MUSIC PLAYING]
Welcome.
Thank you for joining us in today's program,
featuring artist Christina Margarita
Erives, presented as part of the Wignall Museum's Home Edition.
Home Edition is a series of curated artists talks,
workshops, and discussions featuring
artists and cultural workers.
My name is Rebecca Trawick, and I
serve as the Director and Curator of the Wignall Museum.
The Wignall Museum is a teaching museum and interdisciplinary
arts space that introduces Chaffey College students,
faculty, staff, and community members
to innovative contemporary art objects and ideas.
By fostering critical thinking, visual literacy, discourse,
and empathy, the museum seeks to enhance
the intellectual and cultural life of our community.
We want to take a moment to recognize that we are situated
on the Rancho Cucamonga campus of Chaffey College, which
resides on the traditional and unceded lands of the Tongva
people.
We offer our recognition and respect
to the elders both past, present and future.
And hello, my name is Roman Stollenwerk,
I'm Assistant Curator at the Wignall Museum.
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Thank you.
Hi, everyone, my name is Andy Hadle.
I am the Preperator at the museum.
In a moment, Christina Erives will
be presenting for about a half an hour or so,
and the remaining time will be available for Q&A.
Thanks Roman, thanks Andy.
So today, I'm pleased to introduce
our guest, Christina Erives.
Christina Erives was born in Los Angeles, California.
She received a B.A. and M.A. from California State
University Northridge, and her M.F.A. from Pennsylvania State
University.
She has worked as a resident artist and instructor at New
Mexico State University, Belger Crane Yard
Studios in Kansas City, Missouri and Archie Bray Foundation
in Helena, Montana and the University of Montana.
Ceramics as a material has permanence
and it is one of the ways that we
are able to learn about ancient cultures, according to Erives.
She continues, there's so much beauty in these traditions
and a Erives' aim is to be able to make a mark over time that
will be preserved in the history of ceramic objects.
So please join me in giving Christina
a warm, virtual welcome.
Thank you for the introduction, and thank you for having me.
It's such a pleasure to be here today.
So this is me.
I have a big appetite for food and for art,
so I hope you'll enjoy that.
So I put together a range of images from the past six years
I've been out of school and doing various residencies
and teaching residencies.
And I'd be happy to answer any questions
at the end about either my work or about these residencies
if you have any at the end.
And so basically, I have two bodies of work:
one is this large installation work,
and the other are these small singular objects.
But they both, for me, go hand in hand from similar intentions
to want to make something that's vibrant and nourishing in clay.
So I'm going to repeat a couple of sentences
that you just said Rebecca, but I think what stood out to me
most since entering the field of ceramics
is the community of people.
Clay has this ability to bring about this strong power
of connection as it pulls together
people from all over the world and connects us
to a tradition that will be a part of our-- always
be a part of our past, our present, and our future.
And as a material, it offers us so much malleability,
giving us the opportunity to share our individual stories
in such a beautiful way, as it takes on an endless possibility
of color, shape, and form.
And ceramics is, as you mentioned before, has
permanence and it's basically made of stone and where--
freezing every mark we make after it reaches temperature,
and it's one of the ways we learn about ancient cultures.
And I've always found this to be so beautiful
and it's what attracts me to clay,
and I've always wanted to make my mark in the history
of ceramic objects.
So this image right here was from a demo
I did a few years ago.
And it felt really special to me because everyone
got to sculpt their own piece and share
their own story with me.
And I think one of my main goals as an artist,
and for many artists I believe, this
is just finding another way to communicate and connect
with people.
And so for me, my pieces often stem from my identity
as a Mexican-American Chicana and my personal family story.
And my interest in creating these first objects
arose from my fear of being disconnected from these things,
distanced by migration and diluted through generations.
Language was especially a struggle for me
that I would avoid communicating altogether as a child.
I never felt confident in my vocabulary
in neither Spanish or English.
And I think that's what drew me into art.
I felt a sense of comfort communicating abstractly
through physical and visual vocabularies.
And food was my main point of departure
and it's what helped define my identity the most
and finding my voice.
And it just helped me to paint a clearer picture of who I was
and where I was from.
And I always enjoyed how we relate to different foods
and how we're able to share it as an extension of ourselves
and how it can reflect our tastes and where we are from.
And so, I grew up in the San Fernando Valley
in California, which is where I'm
back now because of COVID, I wanted to be near family.
And I think growing up with such an abundance of people, seven
brothers, four sisters, and my mom
always buying these large quantities of food
to feed us constantly, is what subconsciously drew me
into this style of my work where I always
wanted to include more and more food objects.
There could never be enough.
And so, I came up with these ideas
that my installations would never be finished.
They would grow and change each time I set them up.
Much like the scene in any home that changes from day to day
and event to event, this table still lives
would get taken down and rearranged
and new objects would come in.
And so this ceramic table that you see here
has taken a tour in multiple places and everything
you see is earthenware clay and it comes apart piece by piece.
And then, just on the inside of the ceramic table
is a wooden frame for support.
So here's some detail shots of this piece.
My mom would say this phrase to me growing up
that always stuck in my mind, [SPEAKING SPANISH] which means,
full belly, happy heart.
And I like to let that guide my work a lot.
It's like my mantra to always make
something happy and fun, vibrant,
fulfilling, and nourishing, and I
hope that's visible in both my installation
work and my smaller individual works.
And then this is a close up of a fruit
stand I made simultaneously with the first table, colorful table
that I did.
In general, I've always been drawn
into building many objects at a time
and then gradually starting to collect, arrange, and rearrange
these objects into various compositions and still lives.
And the table setting has probably
been my favorite theme by far.
I've always liked the idea of food
being passed around the table, merged
with this idea of stories and memories being passed around,
represented through these various objects.
And this image on the right was the first ceramic table
I ever made before or including color in my work,
so it's all raw earthenware.
And it was to mimic this table that my dad had built for us
growing up that was super long.
It's hard to tell in the image because it's just
at the end of the table, but this table was 10 feet long.
So I built the ceramic table that
was 10 feet long by 4 feet.
And each plate carried a different story for someone
in my family.
So I have certain objects that I like to return to,
such as the table.
But oftentimes when I get started in the studio,
I just I just like to start making whatever
is around me to get rolling because the more objects
I'm able to create in my studio, the more
time I can spend learning from them and playing with them
and warping and merging them in different ways.
Much like any story that gets stretched over time
in it's telling, such as a fish someone caught just
gets bigger and bigger or a stack of tortillas
just gets taller and taller, I really
enjoy these investigations in building one thing to discover
another thing.
In ceramics, it's also such a tedious process
that you always have to make more
to get the one piece you want; you're always
working in multiples.
So I think seeing these quantities
in a studio has also influenced the way I work
and always wanting to fill up scenes with multiples.
And it's also become this habit of mine
when I get started in the studio just to warm up,
I make a familiar object just to get my hands
ready to do something else.
So I'll start making eggs or tortillas
and then I just let them collect at one end of my studio.
And then they end up in--
into their own installations, like this fried egg
wall was just a couple eggs a day
before working on something else.
And then, they just turned into this whole thing
which I really enjoy how they just take over a space.
So that's the way I work.
This is one of my signature tiles
that I've been working on for a while.
The ceramics tape is a pun I enjoy
because I'm a ceramics artist.
I enjoy including humor more and more into my studio practice
and any little thing that can make me laugh or smile,
I think humor creates a very important emotion.
And when I can evoke a feeling from my audience,
it makes the work feel more successful and satisfying
to me.
And I think I get a little natural high
when someone leaves a smile or laugh on one of my posts,
or sends me an email of how happy a piece made them
or how they connected to it.
And I feel like there's so many heavy things going on
in the world.
And I feel like if there's any good things I can add to it,
I think that's a positive thing.
So I tried to make a lot of light, happy things, I think,
in that way.
This is another pun, sponges for dirt and sponges
made from dirt that's my pottery humor right there,
there's a little clay sponge.
And here's some California love.
This is an old pun that's still one of my favorites.
I couldn't find the final image of it,
but I made this six pack with Tupac on the label
a while back.
And I was thinking, if you do the math, a six pack of Tupac
would equal a 12 pac.
And then, these are some jugs that I was working
on for a show a year ago.
I think they're funny because they're jugs
and then they have nipples on them,
so they're jugs with jugs.
But they also carry a strong meaning for me
when I think of my mom raising and breastfeeding 12 kids,
and just the nourishment of being a mother in general
is a pretty intense, wonderful thing.
So this piece was about her filling these 12 cups.
And this is the first time that the pedestal is actually not
made out of clay, this is a found ironing board
that I had painted at a car shop.
And then, this is a comical piece for me too.
I had this vague memory of associating Swiss cheese
with cartoons as a kid.
And then seeing it for the first time
in the market under the deli glass,
I remember thinking in such awe and amusement,
this cheese really does exist.
And it just was a picture to me and not like a real thing.
And so, I had an extra wall to fill in one show
and I just thought, why not just cut up
a bunch of slices of cheese?
And I made it really bright yellow,
and it just made me happy to see this come to life
and see it glow in the corner of a room.
And life is so short, I just feel
you just got to make time to do what makes you happy.
This whole show that I did really made me happy
and I just had a lot of fun with it.
I also found these--
this yellow crate at a thrift shop and more
of these ironing boards, and so I made this little lemonade
glass and lemons to go with it, lemonade set.
Some details of that.
And I don't often make functional work,
but sometimes I get the urge just being around
so many potters like, I want to make a cup.
And then, these are some cactus planters from the same show.
This is one of my wall ashtrays that I make a lot of.
There's an old rhyme in Spanish I always
thought was funny, [SPEAKING SPANISH]
which means after a good taco, have a good tobacco.
And the ashtray form has been sort of an image
that I find myself revisiting often in various iterations.
And I guess I think of it as a soft message or when
it turns into clouds or steam, it shows this movement
and cycle and it's just like my daydream,
go to object in the studio.
When I can't think of anything else,
I just start making these clouds.
And I just enjoy the way they feel, floating.
And then, this is a book end that I
made last year while teaching at the University of Montana.
And this was the first time that I had taught full time,
so I had a hard time finding time
to fire work, which was unusual for me, because I'm constantly
producing.
But for some reason not being able to like fire the work may
push me into wanting to make pieces out of wood
and translate my ideas--
more ideas into wood, which was a first for me.
And I'd never had worked with wood really before.
But I was pretty excited for that until quarantine happened,
and the shop got closed.
And I really want to return to this,
because I feel like a lot of my pieces
would translate well in wood because they're so slab,
base and flat, that they would also work well in wood.
So, once quarantine started, I was teaching for home--
from home for a couple of months and working with cardboard,
a lot which was actually really fun.
I made this chicken head for my 3D foundations
class and this watch clock that has an actual clock
mechanism in it.
And then, this birthday cake was the last piece
before my term there ended, and that was fun.
This is an installation that I made during a teaching
residency at New Mexico University.
Yeah, NMSU, yeah, New Mexico State University.
I wanted it to look like framed portraits of objects
that I was associating with different people
based on some old family stories.
And a lot of my work stems from very specific stories at times
and these sceneries I get immersed in.
But my end goal really is just to create these visually rich
installations that hopefully anyone
can approach with a bit of curiosity and interaction.
Visual representation I think comes and goes in my works,
much like that story that gets stretched
over time in its telling.
I want my pieces to carry that same sense
of altered information while still carrying
the heart of its narrative.
And it also gives me a chance to play between realism
and extraction, I think.
And then these are my tiles that I started just a few years ago,
I think three years ago.
And my initial idea for this body of work
just sprouted from me not wanting
to carry that large, colorful table anymore,
because it was just becoming such a hassle to travel with it
and show it.
And I finally got it back to California the last time
I had showed it, and I just wanted
to keep it there and work on something
that was easier to pack.
And so I thought, OK, I'm going to make just flat tiles
from now on.
And so, that was a rule that I gave myself,
only make flat stuff.
And sometimes giving yourself a rule
is good because it gives it forces a change in your work,
and I'm actually really excited about these tile series which
are still as much work now that they've
accumulated to pack and show.
But, I'm still really happy with the way they are progressing.
So this is one of the first compositions
that I made, and I kept up with the idea of it
being an evolving installation.
But this time, I decided to make it available in parts
because I wanted it to be more accessible for people to take
pieces home, because the other pieces I kept all together.
And it's fun, it's been fun to see
how it spreads into people's different homes
and when people send me pictures of where they have it installed
or the new compositions they make with the new little sets,
they collect and what they picked out,
I enjoy seeing that.
It's just fun just to highlight these everyday little objects.
Lately this past year, I've just been
making like individual ones and not even thinking
about a final composition, just having fun with it.
And all these tiles are individually
cut and carved, inlaid with black under glaze
and then scraped with a metal rib.
And then there's-- the first couple of years,
I was using mostly under glaze.
But this last year.
I've been doing more glossy glazes which is new for me
because I normally just keep my pieces flat.
And you'll see some of those coming up.
So here's one of the glossy ones,
these are some of the newer pieces.
It's one of my favorites.
Some more glossy ones.
So I like the evolution of this work,
because I feel like we're always evolving as people
and I enjoy that sense of growth and opportunity
to become better versions of ourselves.
And so I like that these installations don't ever
have to be fixed or stuck in one composition.
I can keep editing or removing or adding pieces and letting
it grow into what I want to see it become.
And whenever I look back at older work,
I'm always thinking of how I want to change it, or like,
I wish I could add one more thing.
Or, I need-- there needs to be a few more fruit or a little bit
more vegetable or something.
And maybe that's like--
I keep thinking, that's probably my weak spot
as an artist is I always want to change things after I see it.
So I feel like with these installations,
I secure myself this possibility of, yeah,
I can get that satisfaction of changing it later on.
And then, these are some more functional pieces
that branched off from the tiles,
and it's a new adventure for me too
because I don't often make functional work.
But now that I have drawn out this whole catalog of imagery,
I've been playing with my templates
to create more functional objects.
So this is a vase, the last one was a candle--
birthday candle holder, some more vases, a face vase.
And I think I'm going to be making
more of these in the next year, more things like this,
the tiger tray.
And then this is a tostada, one of my tostada plates,
and here's some more tostada plates.
So this has been another ongoing project for me
on the side of my installations, and I
started making these pinchy little plates four years ago,
with the idea that they would mimic the bumpiness
of a fried tortilla.
And I like the idea that maybe they could direct people
away from using a knife and fork,
because a tostada is eaten out of your hand normally.
And I think if you tried to use a knife
and fork on this bumpy plate, you'd feel pretty foolish.
So that was my subtle way of directing people
without having to say, don't use a knife and a fork.
And it's a fun project for me, I'm
really loose with the brush strokes and the patterns.
And to me, the process of making them
and the process of eating a tostada on one of these plates
is all about the simple pleasure of just enjoying oneself.
And think the dream goal for me with project
is to have a big [INAUDIBLE] party.
And then, these are some images from a more recent show.
My first solo show I had was during quarantine,
and I didn't get to see it in person, unfortunately.
But they did such an amazing job putting it online and giving it
this virtual--
like you could look through the gallery virtually online.
And I had never seen anything like that before.
And you can still see the show and the whole catalog
on Liasun Gallery dot com, I was really happy with the show.
So the idea for this show was basically
about a difficult conversation between generations.
The title was [SPEAKING SPANISH],,
With or Without Onions, and it was
supposed to be like a play between what someone would take
on their plate in terms of food, but also symbolically
in terms of things such as tradition and gender roles.
What do you want to pass on to the next person
and what should be left behind on the table?
So the onion served up in the installation
is supposed to represent this emotion while tears
dropped onto one of the plates.
And then, in contrast, another plate
has chosen something more fruitful
with cucumber and lime, while other plates may still
be deciding what to choose.
I'm hoping in a way that I'm going to be--
I'm able to invite my audience to place themselves
at the table and maybe think about what they would like
to put on a plate and just really consider
what you're taking and passing.
And then the cutting boards that went along with this piece
were the action associated with what's
being placed on the table.
This was like a salsa being prepared,
and then the second one had more suggestive fruit and gender
parts.
And the ideas about cutting ties with--
by narrowly defined duties and moving towards a more equitable
generation.
And then I wanted to create like a more fruitful nourishing
ending with this piece.
And this is one of those pieces where I'm still wishing, ah,
there needs to be more fruit on that board.
I think that might be the last image, I hope you enjoyed that.
If you want to follow for more, I'm on Instagram.
All my links are on my profile page to websites and shows
I'm in and whatever I'm involved in is on that page.
Thank you so much.
Can you also repeat the name of the gallery
where you had your solo show recently?
Laisun Gallery, L-A-I-S-U-N.
Got it.
I'm sure your website will also link us there, yes?
Yes, yes.
And you do have an Etsy site, correct?
Yes, I do have Etsy.
Well thank you, that was really wonderful.
So I know you talked about this a little bit, well
you talked about a lot of these ideas.
But I think it's really interesting
how over time, you've changed your installation so
that the narratives that you're creating are more flexible.
And so, it sounds like with more current work,
you're actually curating the narrative as you go,
or curating the symbols.
Do you expect to continue to work in that manner?
So, could you use some of the same work
but actually show it in a different way
so you're telling a different story,
but using the same pieces or repeating the same sort
of imagery or symbolism?
In the beginning, I would swap some pieces
because I felt like they were just
my props to play with in different shows.
But now, I feel like that my style is changing a little bit,
and I'm feeling like some of these pieces I
need to retire and--
or I need to keep them as one thing
and have that be that, and either send it
somewhere or sell it to someone, and I
need to start fresh I feel like some of the--
with some of the pieces.
And so, I think I'm starting to want to move away from that.
I still want to edit the table piece once more
before saying it's set.
But I haven't really touched it in over a year now,
but I keep thinking about oh, I want to change
the surfaces a little bit.
And there's a lot more food that I'm missing on that table,
so much more I want to eat off that table.
So yeah, so I want to do both in a way, I guess.
It's your practice you can do whatever
you want, [LAUGHTER] right?
Something that I like to ask a lot of our visiting artists
is, if you would have any sort of, I don't know,
recommendations or--
actually, how should I say this?
Do you have any advice for students who are just getting
started in their art careers?
Because you have a pretty full prolific career,
I thought maybe you could share some of your insights.
The advice that was given to me that I really took to heart
was just always be making.
And so, I just always make, even when you don't really
know what you're doing, all other times,
it makes sense later.
It all comes together and it means something.
Because everything like that comes out of your hands,
even if you don't really understand it right away,
it came from you and it holds a piece of information about you.
And even when you're in a rut, if you just
get a little thing out of the way,
it gets you closer to the better thing.
And so, just always been making.
It was the number one advice that I took to heart.
Have you ever had a moment in time in your career
where you just doubted yourself and felt like there wasn't
any inspiration or say, like a writer's block
or a creative block?
I think everybody gets that a lot,
and I mean, when I have those, sometimes even
if I feel so paralyzed that I can't do anything
in the studio--
Yeah.
--I still go to the studio and I just sit there.
And somehow I feel eventually, I'm going to get back in it.
Just making the effort to get into the studio.
Yeah.
Someone once told me- this might sound cheesy- but they said,
there's a flame inside of you that
is like your desire to make.
And even if it's like it's dying down
to this tiny little flicker, just don't let it blow out.
Just keep it just going just a little.
And so, for me, that message was even just--
go to the studio, even if you don't have the motivation,
I'd try to get in there.
And even if it's just to put one thing away just
to keep me going, and then eventually you
get through those little ruts and something strikes you.
For sure.
Yeah.
Well, thank you for that.
Uh-huh.
It also makes me think of the previous question
and your answer is always be making, right?
Yeah, yeah.
Make your way through it almost.
Yeah.
Yeah, because I feel like when I take actual time away
from the studio, like if I take a little vacation
or I take a trip.
If I take two days off, it takes me
four days back in the studio to get my hands back
into that correct rhythm.
They always feel awkward after a break,
so it's important to always keep your hands in that rhythm.
Can I ask a question about--
early on, you mentioned that a lot
of the images we were looking at came from both artists
and teaching residences.
Can you talk about your experiences
with both kinds of residences sort of what the difference is,
just speak to those a bit?
Most of the responses that I've done
have been free or paid residences.
I never do anything that I have to pay for because it's already
so hard as is an artist.
And I think the first reason that I went out and looked
for a residency right away after school was just partly
because I'm a ceramic artist, and I need facilities.
But now that I look back, I think the most important thing
to me while doing these residencies
was getting to meet all these different people.
That's the most valuable thing in doing these things is just
this network of friends.
And we continue to help each other
and support each other, even after the fact
of being in these places.
And so, I've done residencies where they were just--
we were just full time working in the studio.
I've done like short term and long term,
and I think they all have their great benefits.
And then even while teaching residencies
are a little bit harder to get other work done, I mean,
as much work done because you're also teaching,
I also feel like while teaching, I'm learning so much.
Even just me remembering to how to explain things out loud,
reminds me certain things.
And I learned from students as well, it goes both ways.
So I think they're all so valuable and worth the time
and the effort.
And people always ask me, isn't it so hard
just to keep moving all over the place?
And it's hard; every time I have to move
I'm like oh my God, this is so much.
But, I never regret it once I get there
and after I do these residencies,
I've never regretted any of the things that I've done.
They've all been so helpful to me.
We have a question in the chat from Evelyn.
How did you get started with your career
and what drew you to ceramics?
So when I was younger, actually when I was in high school,
I took like some cake decorating classes.
And at the time I thought, oh this is what I want to do,
I want to decorate cakes.
And I have a big family, so every birthday,
I was designing this whimsical cake.
Like a cake that looked like a cactus, or a chess
board, or football, I would do those kind of cakes.
But my parents wanted me to go to college
and I mean, they didn't go to college,
so they wanted that for me.
So I went to college and I thought,
I'll take some art classes that might
help support my career that I wanted as a cake decorator.
And right away, I took a ceramics class
and I was like, this is way better.
My pieces they're set in stone, they
don't get eaten up, like all that work doesn't get eaten up
in an hour, and I really liked that.
And I just was really drawn to clay.
And I had a wonderful teacher and she was so supportive
and encouraging that I just--
this is it, this is it for me.
As soon as I got into it, I just never looked back.
Since you shared your past as a baker and cake decorator,
I'm curious to know because of your-- so much of your work
does center around food, around the traditions of food
around family and around the kitchen table,
do you also enjoy cooking?
Does it come from the kitchen as well?
Yeah I mean, I love cooking.
But right now, I cook in phases.
Like if I'm working on a big show,
I'm just in the studio 24/7, but then
like after the show is put up, then
I'm like cooking for a couple of weeks straight.
I have my phases of like either I'm cooking in the studio
or cooking in the kitchen.
But it's not like every day I'm doing both.
I feel like I fluctuate because I guess my personality is just
I need all of one thing, and then I
can move to the next thing.
Like a song that you get stuck in your head
and you have to hear it over and over and over, that's how I am.
I'm like, I need to be in the studio all these next two
weeks, or I need to be in the kitchen all week or something.
Do you have any artists that you're looking at right now
or have always been looking at maybe
that you'd like to amplify or give a shout out
to for the rest of us so we can look them up?
I mean, some of my favorite artists
are some of my best friends.
Ling Chun, she also talks a lot about identity
and her culture in a very abstract way.
And she's a really fun person, and her work
is just so fun too, bright and just splashes of color.
And she also uses mixed media and hair.
And she refers to herself as this beauty school dropout,
and just-- it's so entertaining to hear her talk about her work
and just to look at these pieces.
And you're always discovering something new
and you're like investigating her works,
because there's just so much to look at and enjoy.
Another one of my favorites Yun-ji Quak.
She makes these coil pinch, pinchy vessels that are just
so delicate and intricate, and just really breathtaking pots.
I don't think I've ever seen anything like her work.
And she talks about them like they're
people, these vessels, like they have like warmth and soul.
And she talks about if you're a person who's generous and has
something to offer, then you have a really big vessel
inside of you.
And so that's how she refers to her pieces
as these are generous pieces that have something to give.
And if you meet her, she's the most generous person,
always offering Korean food to people and she's so sweet.
And it just makes so much sense that her work
is about offering.
Another one of my favorites is Margaret Kinkaide
and she does a lot of work about domestic objects as well.
And she's really interested in quilting beads,
and her family has a history of making quilts.
And so she makes a lot of pieces where the surface looks
like a quilted square, but she also
does these installations where she
makes a bunch of plates that look like quilt fabric squares.
And if you go to an opening, everyone
gets to eat off of a plate and after they eat off of a plate,
they get to place the plate on the wall
and create the quilt together as a community.
And I think that's really beautiful too.
So I think those are some of my favorites.
Christina, you did talk about how
your the trajectory of your work and how
you're moving into more flat work, tile work,
functional work, right?
So you've seen the shift over time.
Are any of those shifts due to COVID
per se or due to the pandemic?
Has the pandemic affected your practice in other ways
that you can speak about?
Yeah, I mean it's--
I feel like the pandemic has been a little bit of a struggle
to work at home, partly because I work in ceramics
and I'm used to relying on a communal facility.
So it slowed me down a little bit.
And I feel like ceramic artists or so community based
and, especially when we're talking
about pottery and a lot of things around the table.
And so that lack of in-person contact has been I
think a little lonely.
But, I feel like it hasn't stopped conversations
from continuing, like through Zoom and social media
and emails.
I feel like a lot of people are still
addressing certain issues in our field while at home
and still supporting each other in a lot of great ways, which
is wonderful.
So the perspective, I feel like, has
been different but still a little bit the same.
And I'm still trying to grasp long term what
might be different because of this in my work.
But I feel like it's definitely created a space where
I'm more inclined to reflect on what I've worked on in the past
and where I want to be in the future.
Because I've definitely slowed down
my production a little bit.
I mean, I'm still in the studio every day,
but I'm not going through 100 pounds a day of clay;
I go through just a little bit each day.
But I'm not stressed about that.
I feel like I'm satisfied with what I have on my plate
right now, and I'm enjoying the time
to take more time to think about it
and be a little bit more thoughtful in what I make.
And because I don't have a large kiln here,
I just have a little small test kiln,
I'm more conscientious about like what I'm making and making
sure it counts.
It's just something really important to me,
so I've been more thoughtful about it in that way.
Are you preparing for any upcoming shows?
Do you have anything coming up in the near future
that we can look forward to?
Yeah.
Next month is a fruit and vegetable themed show,
of course, that I got invited to.
And so I'm just making two pieces
and so I'm working on that right now, which will be fun.
It's nice to be able to do like one small little thing
once in a while.
And then, I'm also working on another tile composition
for Liasun Gallery that I had the solo show at,
which will be probably in July.
And I'm imagining maybe picking a different theme,
because I know it's always food and table.
And being at home right now, and spending more time
with my animals.
I have two cats and since quarantine, I got a puppy
and I got a dozen chickens.
And so, I'm just always hanging out with my animals and bonding
with them, so I'm--
I've been wondering about maybe doing an animal theme tile
composition, and that'll be totally new for me,
so you can look out for that.
And Christina, where is the show that you
have a couple of pieces in next month?
Can you tell us?
Giant Robot Gallery.
Oh yeah, OK, cool, awesome.
Yeah, it's an eclectic gallery.
They do themed shows and invite a lot of artists,
I'm excited about it.
Don't they do a big Post-It show that's really--
Yeah.
Yeah, cool.
I wanted to ask about--
I love the jugs and some of the other work
that speaks to gender and bodies and binaries.
I'm curious if those are themes that you'll continue
to explore in your work.
I think so because--
and when I did that show, I was really excited about it
and I was very pleased with it.
But I also, at the same time, wanted
to spend more time on it and it just happened--
I immediately made that work right after I moved back here.
So it was a struggle to get it out,
but I still want to come back to those ideas.
And I was writing a lot about it,
so I do want to dive deeper back into that topic.
I really love those works because they're--
I mean, of course they have your whimsy and humor
on the surface, right?
But then, if you dig a little deeper there's--
it's pretty heavy and interesting.
I like that.
Thank you.
So I always love to know what people are reading, watching
or listening to.
What's your guilty pleasure?
What is sustaining you during this really difficult year
plus you've been living through, we've all been living through.
Reading, watching?
I feel like I have eclectic tastes,
so I'm all over the place.
But I did just finish this little poetry book called
[SPEAKING SPANISH].
It's about animals by Pablo Neruda, and I think it's funny
and like it matches my humor, I think.
And it just--
[BACKGROUND VOICE]
--I think my brother's outside, sorry.
So I really enjoy that and it has really great illustrations
in it, a lot of great prints.
And a lot of times, I like to pick out
books that have a lot of great illustrations too.
And even children's books, I still
buy used children's books to look at the illustrations,
and I just like the short little--
sweet little storylines.
There was a book I just bought- oh,
what's it called- If You're Afraid of the Dark,
Remember the Night Rainbow.
And it had this--
the reason I looked for it is because I
saw an image from the book online,
and it reminded me just--
it reminded me of one of my place settings
that had clouds around it.
And there was an illustration just like that,
and I just thought it was so beautiful,
and it just felt like so me.
So I went and looked for it.
And I also like graphic novels a lot.
I just finished the Paper Girl series, I really enjoyed those.
And then, I'm currently reading, my friend
recommended Fewer Better Things.
It's about material intelligence and, On Beauty and Being Just
is another book I'm reading right now.
Reading those a little bit more slowly.
I read in short increments, so I'm taking my time with those.
Let's see, and I'm listening to right now--
is a lot of Spanish oldies.
I think just because being home, I'm feeling nostalgic,
so I'm listening to a lot of Spanish oldies on my phone.
And I started this series called This is Us,
I don't know if you've heard of that.
But I'm really enjoying that sweet storyline
about the family and the triplets,
and they just have a lot of nice perspectives in that TV show,
and I think it's really sweet.
We have a question in the chat from Lucy.
Lucy asks, did you ever have any pushback or doubts
with family in pursuing a career in ceramics?
If so, what helped you overcome that?
There's been a few times when there--
maybe someone questioned what I was doing early on.
Because early on, it's difficult and you're not
seeing the reward of your hard work quite yet.
And so, I remember a couple of times, maybe,
some of my brothers questioned, what are you doing?
What are you going to do with his career?
What are you going to do after you get out of school?
And why don't you--
and maybe some more subtle hints, like my sisters
forwarding me job listings that weren't
related to what was doing.
And so, that got me down a little bit.
But I also had to be--
I had to just let it fall off of me, like just fall down.
I'd try not to think about it too hard because they
don't know that what I feel like I know.
I know I have this in me, and I know I'm going to work at it,
and I don't know.
I believe in myself was the thing,
and that's what kept me going is having belief in myself
and not trying to worry too much about what others thought.
I knew eventually things are going to pick up,
that's just how it is.
And in art, it's hard in the beginning.
Thanks so much for your time and energy today.
What a pleasure to spend the afternoon with you.
And thanks to those of you who attended live,
we appreciate you spending a little bit of your afternoon
with us as well.
So Roman's putting a few links in the chat,
definitely take a look at those including the survey chat.
And we also want to remind you to visit our website
to sign up for future episodes of Home Edition.
We appreciate you all, thanks so much Christina
and please take care everybody.
Thank you guys.
It was a pleasure.
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