From Christmas to the first week of March, I've had tunnel vision towards finishing the Rex Cancer Center project and haven't had a moment to do anything else. I wondered how to get back into my creative flow when I saw another artist's feed with @JoanneHawker's #MarchMeetTheMaker2022 challenge. I researched and thought this was just the motivator I needed to get back into the Instagram habit. The challenge provides prompts and suggestions for posting every weekday of March, centered around the makers' business. Fifteen days into posting, I thought you'd be interested in my answers to the prompts provided by the challenge. You can follow along the rest of the month on Instagram.
Day 1 - You and Your Work
Me in my studio a few years ago.
I'm Marina, a tile maker and lifelong clay enthusiast who, after 40 years, is still thrilled to be working in clay. I got hooked on clay in kindergarten, continued through school, and ended up with a BFA in Sculpture from Pratt. I started as a potter and grew into a ceramic artist. I dropped the three-dimensional work altogether and focused solely on tiles for a while. But, clay yearns to be 3-D, so throwing, coiling, and slab work returned in the form of lamps, sculptural vases, and birdhouses. Now over sixty, I do custom tile for installations using organic lines and the cuerda seca glaze technique. The rest of the time, I'm playing in the mud or with my poodle, Gem.
Gem will be eight on May 15th.
After sailing into Beaufort, NC, in the early '90s, I set up shop when I realized restaurant work would never make me happy. After a split with my then-husband, I moved to Asheville, NC, and when I met my now-husband, I moved to Raleigh in 2001. North Carolina has it all, water, clay, and mountains.
Day 2 - Brand Values
Happy customer Amy with her new kitchen backsplash.
Impeccable Craftsmanship - every part is beautiful, even what you don't see.
Happy Customers - When doing a commission, I'm very aware that my customer will wake up to what I create every day and live with the project for the length of time they own the home. So I'm careful about hitting all the essential qualities the customer desires. In the work pictured, it was meaningful to the couple that the mural have a light, happy and summery feel.
Timely Delivery - I never want to be why the contractors aren't working.
Day 3- Planning
When it comes to creating, planning has never worked for me. I'll draw what I want to make, and once I start, I end up abandoning the plan to follow the piece where it takes me. Although I see how growing planning and goal-setting skills can propel a career, being over sixty, I want to spend my studio time challenging myself and making more complicated work.
Day 4 - 3 Things
Here are the three sculptures I've been working on that needed consistent focus keeping me off social media.
The finished sculptures at the new Rex Cancer Center, they’re on the 3rd floor terrace.
Day 7 - Favorite
This powder room is my all-time favorite commission. The customer wanted to create a jewel of a space that would surprise dinner guests. The room is tiny, shaped like a backward "L." You enter through a door hidden in the wood paneling that encases a grande staircase like in "Downton Abbey." The toilet is on the left, and in a few short steps, you're at the sink. The backsplash tile starts at the door going all the way around the room, delighting you with color on entering. The tiles, both ceramic and glass, carry your site around the enclosure, and you feel special by the thoughtful design.
My all time favorite commission, a colorful and gem like room created as a surprise for dinner guests.