FOSTERING CREATIVITY THROUGH STUDIO PRACTICE Jared Peterson
Editors: What techniques do you use to make your work and why? Jared Peterson: I use a variety of handbuilding techniques to make my work, but my construction process typically centers around slab building. I’m impatient with clay. I dislike the feeling and mess of wet clay, so I generally work with firm clay to make my slabs. In my most recent work, these firm slabs are cut to a specific thickness by running a cutting wire across appropriate-sized shims that straddle a block of solid clay. From there, I cut the slabs into approximately 2-inch-wide strips, and treat these strips as coils to construct my forms. Since these coils are a uniform thickness, they dry evenly and quickly, allowing me to paddle forms into their final shape soon after attaching them. Finally, I hand roll small coils that are then scored and attached onto the surface of the finished form. These coils function like a line drawing, creating the appearance of texture as well as contrast from glazed areas. Eds: How do you come up with the forms and surfaces that are prevalent in your work? JP: My most recent body of work is inspired by Mexican alebrijes—colorfully painted, carved wooden fantasy creatures. Instead of creating fantasy creatures, however, my work reintroduces the wonder of commonplace animals. Birds, a current focus in my work, help explain the history of art making. Birds became so good at surviving that many species sexually select based on purely aesthetic principles. Birds 40
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