Making It Happen | Laurie Carretta Scupp | Episode 558

Laurie Carretta Scupp | Episode 558

Laurie Carretta Scupp lives and works in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Laurie ceramics are hand built using slabs and pinch pots. Laurie works with red earthenware clay and is inspired by nature, which Laurie uses to form illustrated narratives on her work.

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When it comes to making it happen, how much money or resources did you have to pull together to make it happen, to make at least this window show happen?

Really the only expenses I had were my materials, to be honest. I didn’t have to pay any fee to be in the space. I actually received an allowance and was able to get post cards made to promote the space on my end. I was allowed to have an art opening there if I wanted. But yeah, no, I really other than material costs that was it.

Did you need to have any kind of accountability built into the system to make sure that it happened correctly, or on time?

Just for myself. I had found out I was accepted in January and I was given an approximate date of the beginning to middle of May so as we all know with ceramics takes time and sometimes things don’t always go as you plan so, I think I had a very clear idea that I wanted to seize this opportunity and promote myself and my work as best as I could. So I treated it like a full-time job. Which is pretty much how I treated it anyway. I wanted to succeed.

Did having a deadline keep you motivated and keep you moving?

Absolutely. I think that knowing that I was doing the Window really supported that making of the work because all of a sudden I had, I knew the dimensions of the space and I had an idea of what it would take to fill it. So I started moving backward and started realizing I can’t just make four sculptures and make this look good. It has to be something more vast, and I really spent a lot of time delving into ideas and trying to put something cohesive together. So it definitely supported the work for sure.

How important was your support system around you like your family and friends in order for you to be successful in this?

It was so huge. My family rallied around me in good times and bad. And really helped me from taking the photos, I didn’t have a great camera, so my daughter used her camera and we had all kinds of problems. She would take the photos for me and help me and then our computer couldn’t take the files so my husband would bring them to work and download them there and email them back to me. When I started to get requests to purchase work my other daughter happened to be home and she said, Let’s sit down and we’ll make an Etsy account. And Lisa Naples, my teacher has been the most encouraging force really behind everything. Lisa is a huge support system for me in every way and really gave me the courage to put my work out there are told me it was good enough. She even came over to my house and I had more birds than I was planning to exhibit and and we had really in depth conversations about what looks good and what tells the story better in terms of all of the birds are looking in different directions and how do they best engage each other, to be of interest to other people. She really had that experienced vision to guide me through the process and helped me understand how to ship things appropriately and market myself.

Did you feel that you could have done this without their help?

I probably wouldn’t have been brave enough at this stage. I have a lot of courage but I think it was all of the technical aspects of it that would have deterred me and some of the stumbling blocks would have felt insurmountable without the encouragement of Lisa and my family, for sure.

Is it important to dream bigger than your past experiences?

Yes, absolutely. I think seeing the world as a place of plenty with so many opportunities and really seeing it as vast and as a welcoming place where there is room for everybody is what drives me forward. I think there are so many voices in our heads that for me personally, You weren’t fortunate enough to go to art school or you haven’t been doing this for thirty years. All of these thoughts that come in I think really could have derailed me. So dreaming big and believing that there is a place for you is really the driving force.

My last question for you has to do with a quote from Michael Jordan. Michael Jordan said, Some people want it to happen, some wish it would happen, others make it happen. How does that resonate with you?

Very deeply. I believe it’s true of every thing in life. That if you really want something to happen and set your sights on a course you can make anything happen if you work hard and have a plan and support.