Growing up, Katy was most certainly one of my most creative and interesting friends. Her dad was one of my (and many of my friends') art teachers in school, and so for that reason alone, it instantly made Katy fun and cool.
Years have passed, and to this day, she is still one of the most creative and passionate people I know. One of my favorite things is to see my friends flourish and grow as artists, and Katy is certainly no exception. Her work has evolved so much in the last handful of years, and this is only one of the reasons I'm so excited to share her and her work with you guys today.
Katy's current focus in art is ceramics. Hand-built pieces are Katy's specialty. One of the things I absolutely love about her work is that it's not just beautiful, it's got really fascinating form and function. Form and function in artwork isn't as easy as you'd think.
I'm also extremely intrigued by the juxtaposition she makes of the extremely delicate pieces found in nature with these solid, heavy pieces that she literally builds from nothing. The final form in Katy's work reminds me of her. Grounded yet delicate; real, authentic and beautiful. When viewing her work you aren't just looking at a piece of her, you are also quite literally witnessing her very personal appreciation of the world around her; you may have to look closely to understand what I mean, but spend some time with her work and you'll see it.
Here's our interview below with some cool snapshots of Katy's workspace and some of her beautiful pieces:
FWL: Slash Of Blue is such a great name, where did it come from?
KATY: It's the first line of an Emily dickinson poem. Actually the first line is "A slash of blue" but typed as one word like it has to appear s a username, all I could see was a word that I might not want to use in a company name "aslashofblue". Do you see it? with my graphics and typography background it was screaming at me, so I dropped the "A", problem solved!
FWL: How long have you been making pottery in the capacity that you are now?
KATY: It's been about 5 years. My dad gave me a kiln that he "free-cycled" in 2009, but I didn't have a 230 line to plug it in until 2011. The very day I got the 220 line, I got a box of clay and played around making very elementary pinch pots, and coil pots. I had never taken any sort of ceramics class so I was going on what little my dad had taught me as a kid, he was a high school art teacher for 30+ years, we did a lot of art n our house. I think I might have thrown one bowl with a lot of help in an 8th grade art class, but that was the extent of my ceramics knowledge at the time.
FWL: What attracted you to this medium specifically?
KATY: Any medium that I can use to build something with my ands, that's what does it for me. I never really had an opportunity to use clay all that much, we didn't have any type of ceramic classes in high school. In college, man I hated school, I just took the classes that were required to get done as quickly as possible. So when I was gifted with a like-new kiln, I was finally able to make the art that I had wanted to all along.
FWL: Your artistic background is pretty well rounded; can you talk a little bit about your training/development over the years?
KATY: As long as I can remember, I've been in art classes. I was in every art club ever offered at any school I ever went to. Ever. In high school I was in a program called CAPA (creative and performing arts), I dropped out of it though when they tried to make me take an acting class. HA! NOOOOOOOO!!! I'm such a painfully shy introvert there was no way that was going to happen. It was really sad too, I loved that program, the people in my classes, and my teachers but nope...I'm NOT about to act anything out in front of people. Ever. After high school I went to Columbia College in Chicago majoring in fine art photography. After my 2nd year I switched gears and figured I could get a job easier in graphic design. I moved back to Michigan and got a degree in graphic design. I played that game for about 10 years. I quit to raise my kids and slowly started making money selling little crafty things here and there. I've taken classes in everything from stained glass to crocheting. I take ceramics classes now at Schoolcraft College, learning the wheel (not a fan so far, we shall see), Mostly do hand building right now, which I love. I've also taken a few classes at the Michigan Art Center. I hope I can continue taking as many art classes as possible, for as long as possible, I can't imagine not!
FWL: Your dad was one of my art teachers when we were kids, tell me a story about coming from such an artistic family.
KATY: WOW! Haha! Okay, so I wasn't allowed to have coloring books when I was a kid. Remember how in elementary school they would do those holiday parties and you would have to bring in a wrapped present then they would put the presents in a big pile an you got to go pick one? I always went for the shitty coloring books! You know, the gift that all the other kids totally avoided? Besides that, growing up in my house was amazing. My mom taught 7th grade English and my dad taught art, there were honestly the best bookshelves ever and my dad had an art room with ANY art supply you cold ever imagine. It was like having a bookstore and an art store in my basement! (Oh besides making things, I read a lot). Also my brother played music so we had all sorts of musical instruments like guitars, drums a piano a giant Hammond organ, even an accordion! It was a very loud, colorful house and usually full of people.
KATY: I have always really loved being in the woods. I have a lot of favorite forests around here and whenever I'm not feeling motivated, if I can get into the woods even for 20 minutes, it totally clears my head. I keep Ziplock bags and a pair of kid scissors in the glove box of my car so I'm always ready to collect things for my work. When I find a plant I've never worked with before it's like I can't get into my studio fast enough. I literally will run home and put everything on hold until I make something with that plant. It's fascinating to me how much detail the clay picks up and I do everything I can to capture that with my technique in the building and the glazing. It's all really a fine balance of so many aspects from everything to getting the plant when it's not too new (too soft) and not to old (too brittle) to using the right amount of pressure with pressing it, to knowing what glazes to use for what plants. When it all comes together it blows my mind, every time.
FWL: Do you use different types of clays in your work, and how do you decide what to use for what project?
KATY: No, I use the same clay for everything at the moment. I was using low-fire clays for the past few years and recently changed to a brand called Laguna, mid-fire clay and I love it! I switched because I wanted to make mugs and vessels that hold liquids and I had a hard time doing that with the low fire clays. Since then, I've since switched all of my work to the same mid-fire clay.
FWL: How long, would you say, from concept to full completion, with a photo up onto your site, does 1 single piece take you?
KATY: Totally depends on the piece. Most of the work I make for my easy shop takes about 3-4 weeks from start to finish. But I make other work, like my vases and bottles, specifically for galleries (and my sanity) and those can take a month or more. It's quite a process. Build it, dry it REALLY slow or it can crack, first firing, then glad it, then second firing. Ceramics has taught me a lot about patience.
FWL: I know your husband Danny is an artist too, do you guys ever talk about collaborating on project or would that ever be something we could look forward to?
FWL: I love seeing artist's workspaces. Where is your workspace and can you share any photos of it with us? (the messier the better, so don't clean).
FWL: I'm also super fascinated with process. Tell me how you begin brainstorming for a new piece or describe how your process works. It's okay if it seems to be all over the place, people find inspiration in hearing how random or methodical other artists are.
KATY: For the etsy work my main focus is on composition and form. I have to work with the plants that are in season at the time I am making the piece. Usually I make the slab letting the shape find itself, then I try to come up with a good composition knowing which plants glaze well together. Some are more shallow presses than others, you have to figure out what works. I try to keep them as organic as possible not arranging or over composing the piece. My favorite stage is glazing by far! I play around with layering and I am a big fan of negative space. I try to leave a place for the eye to rest both in the composition of the plants and the glaze application.
With the vessels and other work, I usually sketch out a shape or concept and go from there. It’s a TON of trial and error. I have an app called “Pottery Notes” that I use to keep track of my steps of the process, especially the glazing. Ceramics can be super unpredictable, which is somewhat frustrating but mostly pretty exciting. I cross my fingers a lot.
FWL: I saw some of your pieces were shown at The Lansing Art Gallery & at Pewabic Pottery, do you have any gallery shows coming up?
KATY: I do. Actually I just found out last week that I will be showing a few of my mugs at The Detroit Artist Market in a show called “Cups” which runs from June 10–July16.
FWL: Where can people check out and purchase your work?
KATY: I mainly sell my work online at www.slashofblue.etsy.comBut I also have work in the gallery shop at The Lansing Art Gallery and starting this July my work will be available at Poppins in Mackinac Island, MI.
FWL: Is there an official Slash Of Blue website?
KATY: Nope. There used to be but I was really bad at keeping it updated. Between the clay, etsy, and instagram the website kind of became obsolete.
FWL: I know you have an aversion to certain technological things, so I'm not going to ask you if you have a Twitter, but I will tell you that @slashofblue is available on Twitter just incase you want to jump in. :-)
KATY: HHAHAHAHA I’ve never tweeted. What is good for? I love instagram because it showcases pictures.
FWL: You are very active on Instagram, (which is my favorite), have you found that you can utilize that medium in a positive way for reaching your audience or for connecting with other artists? How so?
KATY: Absolutely! I find tons of inspiration on instagram. It’s such a great community, full of helpful, informative, creative people. At least in my little circle of instagramers. I have learned so much from other potters through IG. In some cases more than I’ve learned from any class.
FWL: Thank you so much for answering these questions for me today! I'm so happy for your success and love that I get to brag about you on my blog!!
KATY: Thank You Leslie!! xoxo
KATY'S INSTAGRAM: @slashofblue
KATY'S ETSY SHOP: slashofblue
KATY'S TUMBLR PAGE: slashofblueceramics
KATY'S EMAIL: slashofblue@gmail.com
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