Anna Mayer

"It depends on what I’m making. Since coming to Houston I have used Armadillo’s Buffalo Wallow a lot as a kind of general-use clay body. I love its warm peach color in the bisque ware stage, and find it pretty easy for hand building. I also like Aardvark’s Obsidian, which I use for my Mourning Ware series. It’s harder to work with, but the deep metallic charcoal color is totally unique. I am trying to wean myself off this clay because of its high manganese content.

I also use found clay or, more specifically, what I refer to as “gleaned clays,” that I source from sites where clay has surfaced due to human activity. One example is the iron-rich clay from construction sites in Houston."

Primary forming method?

"I used to slab build or build with extruded hollow forms almost exclusively, but now I primarily coil. Because I teach ceramic sculpture (at UH Central campus), I am often revisiting the various hand-building techniques for class demos, so I am frequently reminded of the techniques I’m not using regularly. For instance yesterday I demonstrated hard slab construction and got excited about its potential."

Primary firing temperature?

"These days it’s mostly Cone 5, but when I’m doing raku-related processes or pit/barrel, it’s low fire all the way, of course!."

Favorite surface treatment?

"For the last few years I have been embedding crushed porcelain dinnerware and the gleaned clays for my Mourning Ware series, so I’m a bit partial to that. I’m interested in the connections between ceramics and geology; I gravitate towards ways of working with clay that emphasize its rock-like aspects. However I recently made some planters and other garden accoutrements and got really into glazing. I’m not sure how long that will last, though. I also love sgraffito at the moment–I made a logo of sorts with the word “OIL” written frontwards, backwards, vertically both ways, and have been carving that graphic into small objects. They’re not really sculptures yet, but I guess maybe I’m working up to it."

How/Where do you market and sell your artwork?

"I come to ceramics from training in sculpture, conceptual and feminist art, and performance, so I have mostly shown my work in art world institutions and organizations. In Los Angeles, where I lived previously, I exhibited a lot with artist-run galleries, as there is a strong culture of that in LA. I’m always interested in how my work can enter into non-art-specific realms, as well. Over the summer I was part of an interdisciplinary residency for which I did collective research with an engineer from Imperial College in London. This January I’ll be showing the latch hooks I mentioned at the Jung Center in Houston, an organization devoted to psychoanalysis and its potential for facilitating self-discovery and spiritual growth."

"I got interested in ceramics because of its incredible history; whenever I scratch the surface I find super interesting objects that facilitate communal life and bridge realms of existence and consciousness. As a feminist I value domestic history and want to participate in so-called “women’s work”, both of which come up when talking about ceramics.
Being in relationship to people sparks my creativity. Sometimes anger is a spark! And sometimes love. "              

"After a very short-lived career in book publishing, I started making art in my early 20s. However I didn’t work with clay until several years later. Despite all my formalized schooling I’ve actually only ever taken five classes in ceramics–-I’ve acquired many skills through trial and error (emphasis on the error!). Throughout my life as an artist I’ve done a lot of different kinds of paid work, including flower design for massive weddings, waiting tables, temping in doctors’ offices, and managing an international community art and ecology project. Now I am an artist-educator at the college level, which has helped expand my exploration of the field of ceramics–I’m always acquiring new technical skills so I can teach them, and I also focus on looking critically at the art historical canon, learning more about non-white artists and lineages, and trying to create more access points for the numerous techniques and theoretical approaches to ceramics for my students. One of the most important parts of my job is to learn for myself who has been under-recognized or outright excluded from the field, and to make space for other narratives and visions."

How have you have taken your experience as a well-established maker in the field and passed that knowledge along to your other artists?

"I do a lot of this as an artist-educator, obviously, and then I also try to advise friends and colleagues as needed–just the other day a friend came to the studio and I gave her a crash course in soft slab building. I enjoy this, and always love seeing how different people handle clay so very differently!"

What’s the best advice you’ve been given by a fellow maker, mentor, or teacher?

“ My best friend is the amazing artist Jemima Wyman, and she has long advocated for artists making work that is exciting and engaging to us, making work that keeps you coming back to your own studio. Outside support or opportunities might wax and wane, but if your work is fascinating and meaningful for you, you will be able to keep making it through the inevitable roller coaster of visibility and invisibility."