Ambition and Art | Stephen Biggerstaff | Episode 723

Stephen Biggerstaff | Episode 723

Stephen Biggerstaff has been making ceramics seriously for twelve years in Asheville,NC. Stephen has taken multiple ceramics workshops with many artists at craft schools in his region. Stephen rented space at and performed as a studio assistant at Odyssey Center for Ceramic Arts. Stephen was mentored by Lana Wilson and assisted her at Penland and Arrowmont, predominantly. Stephen had a career as a landscape contractor in Charleston County area in SC before moving to NC.

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I heard someone say, Ambition is more important than talent. How do you think that applies to an artistic life or business?

Wow, that’s hard. I don’t believe that ambition is more important than talent so I can’t speak to the quote in the way it was delivered because I believe both will get certain people certain places. So I think both will get you where you need to go and you can take either path. Or you can be on either path. I think ambition will get you what you need or where you want to go quicker but I do believe you have to have some talent in order for the end result to have traction and a life beyond yourself. And going back to what we were talking about earlier about ambivalence, I find that a lot of potters are too timid to kind of be aggressive. They don’t know how to share their work in the world.

Is ambition the same as aggression?

I hope not. (laughter) I mean, I hope not because I feel like I am ambitious but I have to say that in my prior career I was called aggressive. And that kind of makes me feel a little uneasy right now because I don’t feel that aggression and making pots go hand and hand and of course I was younger then.

As ambition maybe gotten a bad rap?

Well. possibly. Probably. Especially I think for…I don’t think it has ever been a bad rap for the average white male in American business possible but I think for women and minorities who are ambitious… I don’t know that ambition was not an appropriate tool. I think ambition is great. I think ambition is how I got to be successful in my prior career. And I think my ambitiousness in how I am making pots today gets my pots out into the world a little quicker. But I don’t try to be aggressive with it.

Is ambition and competition the same thing or are they different?

I think they are different. They are different to me. Competition to me is just someone in the same field having similar products and are trying to vie for similar customers or clients or collectors. That’s just a part of being in business.

I heard someone say, Art without ambition is just dabbling. Do you think that’s true?

I don’t know Paul, I think the people who coin these phrases, I think they can be too subjective. I think art is art. For me art has to speak for itself and has no relationship to ambition. I have followed artists that…or maybe I am just on a different path here…but when I have seen artists kind of grow in their own work maybe more to be painters that have been renown maybe. It seems that once the ambition kind of took over the creative process for them something in their lives seem to change. It seems to be a little tragic. Maybe that’s just the romantic in me. I don’t know.

Where do you see ceramics taking you in the next five years?

I would like to take my work outside of functional and really push the porcelain that I am making into larger…I’d like to see myself making really large pieces that are more sculptural and not for daily use. I love using bowls. I have them all in my kitchen. We eat out of them everyday. But I would like to be making bigger, finer work.