weaving
Taussen Brewer
Please tell us a bit about yourself.
Hi, thank you so much firstly for asking me to do this interview. I am really excited by the other artists that have been showcased here thus far. I grew up in the 1990’s in the suburbs of Tulsa, Oklahoma and did a lot of travelling growing up. I was named after my grandfather who was a professional baseball player. This history has really shaped my vision and voice as an artist. I moved to NY state in 2017 to study ceramics and now live in the Hudson Valley area which I really love. Currently, I teach at several community ceramics studios in the area and am managing a studio in Newburgh, NY. I am in the process of expanding my ceramic process to envelop an interdisciplinary approach which involves video/photography and painting.
How has your education in Fine arts shaped your view of ceramics?
I started making art at a really young age, but my passion for art really started in high school. I was lucky to have gone to a small charter school that specialized in the arts. I took creative writing, printmaking, and photography there. After high school, I spent many years in college muddling through an art degree, and although I did enjoy those years of experimentation in drawing and photography, I never felt deeply connected to my process until I discovered clay. It’s interesting how I’ve come full circle to incorporate photography and painting back into my process. In other words, those early years definitely laid an important foundation.
Were there any mentors or other practitioners that were early inspirations for you?
My earliest mentors were in high school. Learning dark room with Mark Wittig at Tulsa School of Arts and Sciences was very formative for me and this specific program was really a cradle for a lot of my peers that were going through a lot. I learned a lot about composition, portraiture, and presentation in his classes. More currently, which I still consider myself to be in the early stages of my career, are Linda Sormin and Linda Sikora who I met and had classes with in Alfred, NY. The two of them have highly influenced my passion for clay as a material & my understanding of it’s possibility.
Can you share a bit about your process?
I had this thought recently that resonated deeply and really weaves throughout my work. Working with clay really allows me to understand myself better from a psychological point of view. I feel that, when making, I am attempting to see things from alternative perspectives. For example, maybe I take an idea or an experience and reframe it to have multiple meanings that extend past a personal narrative. At this stage, the work really has some powerful things to reveal and builds off of itself. My work has two facets that often intermingle, but my sculptures and functional wares are really two different worlds.
One is more conceptual and the other formal. Typically I will go into a body of work with drawings for sculptures. Making pots feels more organic, it’s a space where I’m able to get out of my head and into my body, which is a great balance. Generally, I am working on many things at once in order to stay busy and maximize my time in the studio.
We know that the clay acts differently at each stage of its drying journey and can be considered a challenging material to work with. How do you achieve, or at least get closer, to become less attached to the final result of a piece?
This may be the most valuable thing I’ve learned about life and working with a material like clay. There are a lot of possibilities that a piece will die along the way from start to finish– from building to drying to glazing. Of course it is disappointing to lose something I’ve spent time on, but it’s always a good opportunity to practice letting go. With that being said, there is a lot of preparation and testing that goes into completing a piece to ensure that the final results are desirable. Although I learned this early on, it is still a challenge for me to take risks and make work that has more of a likelihood to crack or break and that can be one of the most important ways to grow.
How do you feel about working with your hands? Can you tell us more about the impact that it has on your happiness and wellbeing?
Having tactile intimacy in my creative pursuit is everything. It’s what attracted me to it in my first ceramics class and it’s what has kept me engaged. I am convinced that working with clay has completely altered my brain chemistry. It’s really saved my life in a big way as a space to slow down and be present. There are a lot of things in my every day that align with being in process in the studio– from relationships, to life struggles, especially to the mundane. I have a much deeper connection to myself and the world because of it. One thing that I really love about it is that it doesn’t require any sort of end goal, the act of doing it is what feels good and the things I create are an additional benefit.
You’ve mentioned on your website that ¨¨the sculptural objects I create depict fragmented spiritual acts of loss and transformation¨. Can you share your thoughts on that?
At the time that I wrote this statement, I had just lost a close friend of mine. I was in a period of grieving that I hadn’t experienced before and found a lot of comfort being outside looking at plants, reconnecting with the earth. After his passing, COVID came along and then spring. I was thinking about death a lot and how change is a constant force. I was thinking a lot about the languages in nature that we cannot see and that we will never understand. I was leaning into the unknown and trying to piece together a framework that assisted me in not knowing where my friend was. At times, it’s not apparent to me how one object is related to the other but the longer I live with them either in my head or in three dimensions, they are all symbolic of something related to the spiritual journey.
How do you envision a better future in the ceramics world?
Accessibility and visibility. I think clay should be shared with everyone, in schools and in communities at an affordable or sliding scale price. I am biased but I believe in the healing power of clay and think it can be utilized as a form of therapy, creativity, and self-affirming expression all in one. As someone who has moved through one of the most notable ceramics institutions, I also think visibility is extremely important in regards to learning about history and paying attention to contemporary artists. I have not learned about Indigenous or African makers as a student and I think institutions could do better and be better if they incorporated this into the curriculum especially in regards to a medium like clay.
Tell us more about your upcoming projects or any product development you are currently working on?
At the moment, I am working on a series of commissions and am also working towards a photoshoot at the end of the year, which will include a new line of functional wares and hopefully a handful of new sculptures. I’m about to start a series of tests for new color schemes and I am working on some new forms for the table. Also! I just recently had a Garden Party and am really interested in showing work outside. For next summer, I’m hoping to collaborate with a group of artists and the kids who run this community garden project here in Kingston. We will make the work together outside and then have an exhibition outside with plants, which will give high school students an early opportunity to show their work in a non-traditional space.
Can you share with us some books or any resources, that you have been using for your learning over the years?
Recently, I have been listening to the podcast For The Wild quite frequently on my commute to work. Lots of great topics about the state of the Earth, storytelling, co-liberation, etc. A couple books that have made a big impact on me the past few years are Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer and The Sacred Path: The Way of the Muscogee Creeks by Jean Chaudhuri. I have also been a big fan of this book of poems: Kites at Empty Airports by Joseph Pintauro.
Taussen´s social media and website . All pictures belong to Taussen.
