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Morgan Peck | Episode 1081
Morgan Peck is a ceramicist living in Los Angeles. Morgan’s namesake ceramic company, started in 2011, includes mirrors, lamps, sculptures, and vases all made in her backyard studio. Peck’s work continues in the footsteps of the studio potters that preceded her and she makes note of numerous styles, hinting at the Memphis Group, the Bauhaus, and Art Deco. Sometimes reproducing the forms of Venetian glass and the splotchy surfaces of 19th century spongeware, she moves through these references with a modest, considered, and decidedly modern touch.
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Isn’t that a bit dangerous saying yes first?
(laughter) Yes of course, it’s super dangerous. I think it is but I think it is way more dangerous to say no to everything in terms of reaching my goal which was to just keep doing it. I was too new to say no and to know where to say no to. And everything was so exciting I didn’t want to say no.
So if I hear you correctly, you are not saying say yes always. You are saying do it first and then it’s a learning experience. Is that kind of safe to say it that way?
Yeah, I mean I think people ask me to do things I have never made and I think about it for minute. I think could I do it? How would I do it? I think I could do it. I will say yes, I can do it. But I would never take someone’s money if I didn’t do it or if I came up with something I wasn’t happy with.
So you are not throwing standards out the window. You are still saying can I do it with quality and can I do it successfully?
I definitely had my own standards on how I think it should look but I had to also realize I have a certain style and it’s not perfect and it doesn’t look machine made so that’s why people are coming to me. You have to trust the client is going to see what they like and that they came to you for a reason and you don’t have to change who you are.
You gave a little caveat saying if you couldn’t do it you could always say no. So it’s not saying yes first period. But you can always say no. Is that accurate?
I had to become comfortable. People would say, Can you make this? Can you make this in five weeks? Yeah, I can. There was one situation where this was not working, every single one I am making is cracking again and again and again. And I don’t know how to fix this. I don’t know how to change this and I am out of time. So I came to them and said I am sorry, this is what happened. Of course nobody who doesn’t do clay wants to know the technical problems that come with clay, they could care less. I wasn’t super apologetic but I said this is what happened and this is part of the deal with clay so I couldn’t do it. But I was happy that I tried. I just never wanted to be afraid of something because I haven’t done it.
How many hours a week do you typically put into making in the studio?
I am here six hours a day because I have to drop my kids off and pick them up. So six times five is thirty. So it’s thirty but there’s always evening you have to come to check on stuff or on the weekends you might have to load the kiln or unload the kiln so there’s overtime too.
Book
Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler
Contact
Instagram: @_morgan_peck_