I loved my time at TCS. I still think about the conversations I had with my mentors during my own studio practice. Especially my work with Olen Hsu helped me grow in my voice as an artist. Jennifer Martin was a huge role in my development of technical and business skills.
The bodies, lives, and habits of people inspire my artwork. I use my work to meditate on my own story as well as others’ stories. I use repetitively and ritualistically applied textures to contemplate how I form both good and bad habits as reactions to my experiences. I am particularly interested in exploring how traumatic events (and our repetition of those memories in both thought and action) shape us and our emotions. Ceramics can be a strong mode of healing, and I use that potential to inform both my artwork and my teaching methods.
For me, ceramics create an intimacy for the viewer unlike any other art form. We carry ceramic objects in our hands, put ceramic cups to our lips, and keep ceramic sculptures all over our homes. I regard ceramics as a four-dimensional art form—each piece carries an aura that changes over time. The more an object is used, touched, or experienced, the more its aura changes and deepens. These intimate interactions are an important part of my artwork's aura, and because of this the viewer is always welcome to touch and interact with not only my functional work but also my sculptural pieces.
Instagram: @teesdalestudios
