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David Swenson | Episode 1089
David Swenson is ceramist and instructor from Clearwater, MN. In 2009, David moved to Minnesota from Rhode Island, and works in the Twin Cities area teaching workshops and ceramics in community education. David’s work is embellished with motifs and techniques inspired by history, folk arts, textiles, and medieval art, while maintaining a modern aesthetic.
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Do you make based on a schedule or do you wait until you are inspired?
I try to do both. (laughter) It’s hard to force it but deadlines are deadlines so you gotta do what you gotta do, right? But it’s always better for me to wait, if I can.
Do you have cues to help you feel creative or be in a creative mood?
It’s usually in-between 10 and 4 am. I am nocturnal by nature and that is just when my brain starts working. So if I can work kind of later I’ll be a lot more productive. I feel like I can focus.
Do you have exercises outside of the studio that helps you keep a creative mind-set?
Yeah, I try to look at a lot of museum collections, look at old things. I like to look at old hardware, you know, door hinges and things that are decorative right now. And playing music, I think, has helped me in terms of thinking about the composition. A lot of the times I will abstract the surface designs I am working with into something that feels like a musical composition for me. So there are parallels between the different creative practices.
I am curious about how you balance creativity with practicality, you are, after all, making functional ware.
A lot of the times, yeah. I am starting to deviate a little bit more. I have been focusing on functional stuff since I started decorating on things. And so the more crazy the shape is the harder it is to paint on and the more speed bumps there are for my brush, so things got a little bit more simple when I started doing that.
What’s got you really stoked in the studio right now?
I have been kind of playing with the idea of reliquaries again. Really ornate kind of storage items that channel some history that might be in a sacred place or an altar, but trying to incorporate some of the sculpture back into what I have been doing lately which is primarily functional things.
What kind of support is needed in life for you to be the best artist you can be? To be the most inspired or creative?
You know, time is invaluable. And having the time…I have been really fortunate since we moved up here to have a lot of time and space for the work. We bought our studio from Bob Briscoe in 2019 when he retired and I don’t see a lot of people all the time any more and that’s kind of weird for my social stuff. But I have a lot more time to kind of focus and it’s sort of monastic. You know, I can kind of meditate and focus on what’s there in front of me and it’s good and bad (laughter) for a number of reasons, but I think that the time has been really helpful for me.
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swenwares.wixsite.com/swenwares
Instagram: @swenwares