We were talking before we got started about how pottery entered your life.
Yeah, I never completed any post-secondary education. I finished high school and didn’t know what I wanted to do. When I took those pottery classes at the Shadbolt Centre—almost 20 years ago, now—it all kind of developed from there. It was a lot of learning on my own; not just pottery, but other things too, like drawing. I did a residency at Alfred University in upstate New York, and then a residency in 2020 at Medalta in Medicine Hat, Alberta. I still feel like I’m just making stuff for fun; it feels weird to sell things.
Maybe that “weirdness” is what swayed you into teaching instead?
When we first started Summer Skool, I’d never taught before. Maggie really believed in me and she really pushed me a lot. It was hard, but looking back, I’m really thankful she did that, because I’m such a scaredy cat. I was nervous that first week, and didn’t have enough confidence in my own skills. My ears actually plugged up. Everything sounded distant and foggy. It’s the only time that’s ever happened to me. I wasn’t shaking or anything, it was all internal. Now I’ve been doing this so long that it feels easy. I feel a lot more comfortable in the teaching role.
Would you say your work has evolved over the years?
I think it has evolved, but I also feel like I’ve always been myself. I have all these crates here filled with things I’ve made, and every once in a while I’ll be looking for something and I’ll find something from eight or nine years ago. And it’s always an alternate version of what I do now. So I don’t think I’m too far from what I was doing before. I think I have a strong personality; not strong like intense, but more like, recognizable, consistent. I don’t make things for other people too often. And I don’t try to make things to sell them. I just make what I make.
Why did pottery click for you all those years ago?
I had decided that I wanted to learn something new every January. The first time, I took up spinning classes, like yarn spinning, and I became totally obsessed with it. My mom was very supportive and got me a spinning wheel. And the next year, I chose a pottery class, and just stuck to it. I learned pretty quickly how many different facets there are to the art form, and I’m still learning something new every day. Recently I took a course on glaze chemistry. You could spend your whole life learning about different forms and clay bodies and specific kinds of firing. There’s always more to learn. It’s kind of endless, and I think that’s why it stuck with me.
Who do you look to for inspiration?
Joanna Powell is a potter I really love, but I don’t really know or particularly look to emulate modern artists. I prefer to look back at more ancient forms. If you made a bowl back then, it was because a bowl needed to be made. There was no IKEA.
Sounds like there’s a relationship between the functional and the artistic.
I just think about things I’d want to use. If I’m making a handle, I’m interested in what’s going to be comfortable. If I’m making a cup, I’m thinking about what kind of rim is best to drink out of, or how a bowl should be made if you’re going to be scooping something out of it. Functionality is important, but also you want to make something that looks good. I like making things that are thicker, rather than thinner, more delicate pottery. I like making work that people can use every day. Things that your cat can knock off the counter and it doesn’t break.
Your studio is incredible. I wanted to know what the process was in setting up?
It was a pretty wild move-in. It was basically an empty room and I think we got the kilns hooked up right away. Maggie and I didn’t know each other that well. We both just heaped all of our stuff together in a huge pile, but we had to get sorted out really quickly, because we had a class that week. Looking back, I can’t believe we did that. It was super, super fast. Over the years, it’s changed so much. We didn’t have a glaze station. We put up all this shelving ourselves, which I’m very proud of, because initially, we didn’t know what we were doing. But we figured it out.
What would you say is the hardest part about being an artist?
That’s a good question. I mean, there’s lots of hard things. It is really hard running a business. I’m not a business-minded person. I don’t know about SEO or any of that stuff. I find that part really challenging. Honestly, it feels uncomfortable to even say that I’m an artist. I don’t know how to explain it exactly. I’m uncomfortable labeling myself. I do feel very comfortable in the role of teacher, But then at the same time, I get a little bit sad, because I wonder if people just think of me as a teacher, and not somebody who actually makes pottery, too. I love teaching. But I love making stuff more. And I teach to keep myself and the studio afloat. But I wonder if that's because it's a sure thing; people always sign up for classes, and people always want to, but I don't know if people are always going to buy my weird things. Sometimes I wish we could just live in Star Trek, where there's no money. Everybody's just doing their thing. There's trading and precious metals, but generally people are just living and doing what they want to do. That's my ideal.
Thanks so much for speaking with us today, Julia.
Thank you.
