ARTIST OF THE MONTH

from Discover Rhode Island Magazine, September 2020 edition

SEPTEMBER EVENTS

ERIKA HOUGHTON

Interview with the Artist & Owner of Verdant Raku

I grew up in Barrington, RI where I did as much art as I could get my hands on. I graduated from Messiah University (Grantham, PA) with a Bachelor of Fine Arts and concentrations in graphic design and ceramics. I currently live in Attleboro, MA with my husband, two children, and a couple of well-fed guinea pigs.

INSTAGRAM : @VERDANTRAKU / @ WOLFANDPIGGY WEBSITE : HTTPS : / / ERIKAWOLFHOUGHTON.WEEBLY.COM /

What Kind of Art do You Create?

Verdant Raku: I design, hand-build, raku-fire and sell ceramic planters for succulents/tillandsia (air plants). Each plant is thoughtfully selected to become an extension of my sculptural pots.

Wolf and Piggy: I hand-build, display, and sell narrative ceramic sculptures and piggy banks that often highlight the humor in the every-day life of a mom.

Where/How did your artistic journey begin?

I can recall loving to draw as early as four-years-old. My love for art continued throughout my school years. When I was in fourth grade, I took lessons at Don’s Art Shop in Warren, RI. I have such fond memories of our Saturday morning kids’ classes where

we practiced perspective drawing and figures in motion. I still have my big sketchpad from that time and can look back and see the weekly progress I made under artist Don Primiano’s instruction. In middle school at Barrington Christian Academy, I took every extracurricular art class that was offered. I particularly loved a glass-etching class taught by Dick Cady and a fashion/sewing class taught by Jamie Gregory. Barrington High School is where I discovered a love for clay and sculpting. By the end of my junior year, I had taken every art class except for ceramics. Ironically, nothing about it appealed to me, but my insightful art teacher, Irene Utterback, encouraged me to give the course a try. She was right. I fell in love with the clay and working in three dimension.

I built my portfolio and headed off to Messiah University, in Grantham PA, on a partial art-scholarship where I earned my Bachelor’s degree in Fine Arts with concentrations in both ceramics and graphic design. My ceramics courses were intense with long hours spent in the studio. I was taught how to make clay from scratch—a dusty, arduous process that started with several dry ingredients before adding water and mixing through a pug machine. I, along with a team of students, also mixed up all the studio’s glaze recipes. By my senior year, I was responsible for firing the cone 10 gas reduction kiln which required aroundthe-clock monitoring for 24 hours each time. While I took several classes on

mastering the potter’s wheel, my passion remained for hand-building, which is a ceramics term for sculpting with clay. After college, I worked for several years full-time in graphic design at Stebbings Partners. When my daughter was born, I decided to freelance from home and continued to do so until my son was born three years later. When both kids went off to school fulltime, I started to get back into ceramics. In 2013, I connected with Mudstone Studios (Warren, RI) and its wonderful community of ceramic artists. There I began to formulate my own side business with my ceramic artwork. As my two lines of artwork started to take shape, I joined Made In Warren Artist Cooperative Store (Warren, RI) which began as a successful holiday pop-up in 2015 and is now in its 5th year. There, I sell my artwork as well as help to run the store. In addition to making and selling my work, I’ve taught high school ceramics at Barrington Christian Academy for the last seven years.

What is your creative process like?

The hand-building techniques that I’m most passionate about are pinch-pots and slab. While both lines of my work look very different from one another, they both use the same techniques. Whether I’m forming a pot or a pig, I usually start with a pinchpot. A pinch-pot is made from a ball of clay that is slowly and repetitively “pinchedand-turned” into a pot. A slab refers to the clay being rolled out and flattened until a desired thickness-- for me around 3/8". From there, I can texture the slab and build onto my pinch-pot to form the walls of my succulent planters. For the pigs, I use a slab as a base under them to anchor the scene they’re in. The firing process for the succulent planters is unique, labor-

intensive, and unpredictable. It’s called “Raku.” Raku ware is a type of Japanese pottery traditionally used in Japanese Tea Ceremonies dating back to the 16th century. I typically heat the ware in a kiln to 1,900 degrees and remove the ware while still glowing hot. I place the ware in an aluminum trash can filled with combustibles such as newspaper and wood shavings. A reduction atmosphere is created by putting a lid on the trash can. The combustibles catch fire and force the reaction to pull oxygen from the glaze and the clay minerals. This leaves an iridescent luster and creates a metallic effect on the ware. Parts of the ware that are unglazed will turn a smoky black. Once the ware is cooled and cleaned, I seal it afterwards with tung oil so that the raku-fired pot can hold a plant without the monthly waterings affecting the color of the pot. Each piece is unique and I cannot recreate the color even if I wanted to.

What inspired you to start your business?

My family is my first priority, but having a side business like this provides the flexibility I need while making some money doing what I love.

Which piece is your favorite to create?

Currently, I’m excited about the jellyfish designs that hold tillandsia (air plants). I enjoy finding just the right air plant to form the tendrils. I love how well these pieces photograph and take on an “other-world” appearance. The positive response from customers and the strong sales for these are also very encouraging.

Regarding the piggy sculptures, I had a lot of fun working on an interactive piece during the initial shutdown in March. Inspired by my kids that were all of a sudden playing board games again, I sculpted a miniature hungry-hungry hippos game with three different pigs as the players. I posted photos of it in progress to social media and invited the audience to suggest the fourth player. I ended up sculpting three different options for player number four. The first option was a pig doing a handstand while playing the game (because that’s what kids do, they can’t sit still). The second option was a pig having a tantrum — alsoknown-as “sore-loser-piggy”— we all know one of those! The final option was a sly-looking wolf. I left it up to the viewer to decide how that game ended. Wink, wink!