Interviews

Sebastian, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today How did you learn to do what you do? Knowing what you know now, what could you have done to speed up your learning process? What skills do you think were most essential? What obstacles stood in the way of learning more?

I was educated at the University of Youtube, or at least that what I like to tell people. In other words, I am self taught, so a lot of my knowledge comes from intuition, trial and error, and youtube when I want to learn a specific skill or process. The first time I made something out of clay was in my freshman year of highschool. I made a pinch pot, a teapot, and an animal sculpture, and then I would not touch clay for another six years after that. In 2018 I found clay at a time when I was not looking to begin an art career, but more so looking to find peace and stay out of trouble. Not having a teacher, I became my own and began exploring with air dry clay. A big part of my learning process was learning to build and fire my woodfire kiln which allowed me to fire my own work, and learn at my own pace. In 2020 I learned to build a kiln by studying the kilns used by the amazing artisans in two Mexican towns who’s art I adore, called Amatenango Del Valle, and Los Reyes de Metzontla. Using free bricks from craigslist and stones from my backyard, I built a five-foot-tall woodfire kiln that could fire up to 2300 degrees. In 2022 as I was finishing up my bachelors (sociology) at Cal state East Bay, I took a beginner ceramics classes to fulfill my credits requirement, and mainly so I could have access to their larger kilns. I was taught by the awesome Professor Jennifer Brazelton, and learned how to build larger forms, build sculptures using an armature, mix glazes, and took advantage of some fun prompts to begin exploring more of my own expression, and adding more meaning behind my work rather than just technical exploration.

Shoot, what would I have done differently to speed up my learning process? My first thought was go to art school. As a self taught artist, often learning the hard way, by trial and error, I often wonder how much different my experience would have been, having earlier access to the knowledge, materials, and facilities. This being said, I still wouldn’t change the way that I learned and developed my skill set. I feel like I explored ceramics in a way that was so authentic to me, and allowed me to maintain my identity in my practice. Once thing about ceramics, is there are many ways to get to the same goal. Whether its wheel throwing, mug making, kiln building, the tools I use, I’ve noticed that the way that I do things, is not in accordance to the teaching standard, but it still works. I think being self taught also leads to a lot of “Aha” moments, when trying new techniques and troubleshooting, which can be very rewarding. Having my DIY woodfire kiln also allowed me to learn at my own pace, which was fast, especially during the pandemic times, all I was doing was clay. During that time I was giving myself my own homework assignments, like “Make ___ pieces using ___ Technique” and then I would sell those pieces at local art markets to pay my rent during the pandemic. This gave me a very mutually beneficial and motivating way to explore new techniques and get practice making ceramics. I would be firing the kiln multiple times per week for months at a time. I think one thing that can still do to speed up my learning would be apply to more residencies so I can explore the medium with access to better kilns, glazes, and studio space.

Throughout this journey with clay, certain skills have been put to use, and others developed along the way. Beginning working in ceramics on self taught path, I was very curios which felt like a skill at times, because I had to push myself to be even more curious. I love designing and making functional items, and I had to be curious about how I can push the design, functionality, and the process further. In this quest, the motto is trial and error, not trial and success, so in this process it requires a lot of resilience, determination, faith, and patience. More tangibly speaking, learning to throw on the pottery wheel was a great skill to develop speed up the process of making my pots. It was also essential to have ingenuity and a DIY spirit, as I learned how to build a kiln and fire it on my own.

The biggest obstacle in the way of learning more has definitely been the barrier to entry in the world of art, and specifically ceramics arts. I taught myself because I didn’t have an art teacher or the luxury of art school. I built my own kiln because I couldn’t afford a membership to a ceramics studio. And even now it can be harder to get residencies, teaching opportunities, gallery recognition, without the art degree on your resume, and the networking that comes wit it. Ceramics is an expensive craft if you’re getting into it on your own, from the pottery wheel, tools, kiln, clay, glazes, and studio space, and knowledge. This has fueled my desire to help make ceramics and the therapeutic aspects of it more accessible to folks from all communities.

Excerpt from Interview with Canvas Rebel.

Photo Credits

Vanessa Vigil @Vavimami

Willie Gomez @williecaptureslight