Jeff Forster

"I use many different clays depending on what I am making but most often prefer a high iron groggy stoneware or reclaim of various clays."

Primary forming method?

" I use just about every process I am familiar with.  A lot of my sculpture is soft-slabs in found press molds but recently I have been doing more wheel work. "

Primary firing temperature?

"High fire, cone 10. "

Favorite surface treatment?

"Wood-fired and cooled in reduction with high iron clays."

How/Where do you market and sell your artwork?

"Don’t really market my work outside of Instagram a little, mostly word of mouth.  I don’t have a regular commercial space but prefer showing at non-profit institutions such as art centers and schools.  They are usually less concerned about the sale and more interested in the idea behind the object. "

"Everything.  Especially entropy, decay and other natural cycles but also architecture, plants, other art, conversations, etc."             

"I knew in middle school already I wanted to be an artist and by high school an art teacher.  For a short time I was interested in the sciences and especially chemistry.  I taught high school art for three years knowing I was going to leave for graduate school.  I started doing more painting and photography but at the end of my undergraduate career found clay.  Now my creative research focuses on clay but implements all of those things."

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

" Teaching full time, being a guest artist in other places to give lectures, workshops, engaging with other communities at different residencies."

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

“If you don’t have a life outside of art you will likely not having anything to make art about."