Nick Sevigney: Altered Forms and Ideas

Hey there!

I'm Nick Sevigney, and I’m thrilled to invite you to my unique workshop where we’ll dive deep into the art of creating pinched bowl forms using a clay mushroom anvil. This workshop is perfect for both beginners and seasoned potters looking to explore new techniques and gain fresh insights into their studio practice.

By joining this workshop, you'll not only learn to create a distinctive altered bowl with minimal tools but also gain a deeper understanding of your creative process. You'll explore the 'why' behind your work, which is crucial for developing a unique artistic voice. This experience will help you move beyond mere reproduction, encouraging you to draw on personal and cultural influences to create pieces that are both meaningful and thought-provoking.

Work with whatever clay and tools you presently use as I construct a pinched bowl form using a clay mushroom anvil. Clay can be the ultimate 3D chameleon and take on the forms and surfaces you choose but how do you choose those forms and surfaces? Making a form or technique is the “how” of studio practice and we will talk about the “why” by investigating what it is you appreciate about your creative clay practice. Help define what motivates your studio practice and how you can draw inspiration from a wider community and culture.

Example Work:

What We'll Do:

• Create a Clay Mushroom Anvil: We will start by crafting a simple tool that helps in paddling and widening your pinched bowl form.
• Form a Footed Bowl: Use the anvil and paddle to shape a beautiful footed bowl, showcasing your style and creativity.
• Explore Form Manipulation: Learn techniques like faceting and altering to add unique textures and surfaces to your piece.
• Discuss Audience Perception: Understand how to engage viewers and patrons with your work, making it resonate on a deeper level.
• Build a Theme or Narrative: Use plaster and bisque tablets to tell a story through your bowl, elevating it from a functional object to a piece of art.

Results:

This workshop offers a unique opportunity to expand your pottery skills and creative thinking. You’ll leave with new techniques, a beautiful handmade bowl, and a deeper connection to your artistic practice. It's a chance to learn, create, and grow in a supportive and inspiring environment.

Required Materials:

• Clay
• Paddle form (this can be a paddle, paint stirrer, or long and flat wooden tool)
• Something to take notes on regarding your inspirations, motivations, and dislikes

Artist Statement:
My work and studio practice is inspired by the forms and textures in ocean life, insects, science fiction, and Yixing teaware using the Trompe L’oiel (fools the eye) potentials of clay. Tubes, text, and distressed textures inspired by “make-do” repairs and adaptations cover surfaces in opposition to the culture of disposable objects lacking repair options. Pieces seem inefficient and obscure with drips, cracks, and rough surfaces suggesting leaking joints and connections to encourage the viewer to explore and question the potential function of the piece and question its history.

Process:
I use a combination of wheel thrown, pinched, and altered forms to create clay vessels. I create custom plaster tablets to impress textures onto clay pieces that get patchworked together. Some forms are hand incised, facetted, and inflated directly. Texture takes priority over color or other surface treatments to emphasize the highly detailed surfaces with a variety of complexities. I appreciate the handling qualities, cultures, and associations attached to porcelain.

Bio:
I have taught college and maintained a studio practice in ceramics since 1996. I am presently a Professor at Plymouth State University in central New Hampshire close to my home state of Maine. Growing up in Wells, Maine formed my earliest interests in the vast other worldliness of ocean and I am thankful it is a short drive from the mountains where I live. The Atlantic is vast, timeless, and weathers everything from steel to stone, which inspires my work.

Charles Kernaghan was the executive director of the Institute for Global Labour and Human Rights and a hero of mine. He said “Who will save the precious memories in life that mean nothing because we can’t make money off them? That must be the role of the artist, to save those precious things.” My goal as an artist is to make precious things and educate and assist people creating them.

I enjoy jelly donuts, bird watching, and time with my partner and our son. Together, we enjoy making things, working outside, and the beautiful area we are privileged to live and work amongst, along with doting on our big-eared black and brown dog.

Website: http://www.nicksevigney.com