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Ray Brown | Episode 1049
Ray Brown was born in Houston, Texas, and received a BFA with Honors from the Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College at the University of Mississippi. Later Ray receive an MFA in Studio Art with emphasis in Ceramics at West Virginia University.
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Do you record your process of how you went from A to final product?
I do. I usually in a cycle I don’t really make things perfect in the first go. So typically I will save one or two of each new form that I make. I have kind of a greenware library in my studio where I keep things at certain stages and that will remind me of how I have done things with certain forms. It also relates to the drawings and how I am thinking about what components to make, planning that ahead. And the drawings inform me how the things should be attached and how the attachments relate as a whole.
What does success look like for a researching artist?
So that’s a hard question. I think success is kind of different for each person. For me it’s something that I am not very good at identifying and I am getting better at it. Like I said before when the surface quality and trimming is fresh, the handle, the attachments, the clay body are all working together where it’s not too much and I can bring it home and I will use it for a few days and live with it. I will usually do some writing and just think about it. And I will make some sketches as well of how I can make things better and success is something I find in really using the object at the end of making.
You said you live with your pieces for awhile. Do you ever turn around and sell pieces you have used?
I do not. I don’t know, that’s a little…like I won’t give someone a pot that I have used. But I will keep it at home. I do kind of have a living library at home as well of those pots that I have used. I use pots from each batch and take notes on them and evaluate them.
Who do you have in your mind when you are researching that you want to help?
That’s kind of a what’s your audience question. So I think for me I guess that idea of research it would go back to the utility of the object and how it lives in the home and how people interact with it. I am mainly making decisions through the making are things I am attracted to and things I am interested in. I am making for myself but with the idea I hope others will enjoy the decisions I am making with the work. I am looking for a kind of ergonomic quality that ties in with a kind of gestural line quality and layering things on that creates a composition. And if people find interest in the surface as well as the form and find a nice relationship between both that is kind of the audience that I am looking for.
When you are done your research. When do you know a piece is ready for the world? When does the FDA give approval? (laughter)
With some testing and with the clear glaze I use that fits pretty well with the clay body I use so theirs no chemical worries there and every thing is safe to use. It’s usually one or two pots per cycle. Or if I do a one off piece and I find it successful than I will share it.
How much making are you able to fit in during the school year?
Those are long days. Generally if I am under a deadline I will wake up at five o’clock and get in and work until eight and then I will leave right at five. Other days when the studio isn’t as busy I will tend to work a little later and stay until nine or ten. It’s difficult. I think the max I could probably do is 40 pots a month or so during the school year.
Book
How to Wrap Five Eggs by Hideyuki Oka
Contact
Instagram: @rlbrown1995