From Dead to Alive | Zuza Ferenczová | Episode 852

Zuza Ferenczova | Episode 852

Zuza Ferenczová is a part-time potter and part-time scriptwriter from Slovakia, Europe. Zuza has a small garden studio where she makes small batches of hand-built pottery. Recently Zuza has founded a nonprofit organization called Ruky v hline, dedicated to organize educational activities for kids and adults in the field of pottery. Zuz has just been accepted for a PhD program in Film and Television studies as well.

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Why do you think working in clay brought life back to you?

You know first of all clay is a fantastic, unbelievable material and I think everybody on this planet can mold it into something. So it’s really a friendly material and it’s a piece of earth so it’s very primal. It kind of belongs to us for centuries. But in the other hand I find this act of creation when you are working with clay a mythological act, you know, it was nothing then God decided to make the world and then something. You make it. Nobody asks for it, like nobody asks for my cups or bowls or whatever. They don’t need to exist but all of your inside you kind of pressures nothing to something. And it’s so archetypal and so strong it’s like a metaphor of existence and I think this is what is so satisfying about this process.

You mentioned that getting feedback from people who bought your pieces was very life giving for your soul and I am curious why was that so necessary for you?

That’s a good question. I don’t know if there’s somebody out there who creates just for himself or herself. You need people. I could make bowls for myself but what would be the sense of it because it’s about sharing. You are sharing your insight, you are sharing something from you that you don’t need to share it with yourself to share it with somebody. Even so I don’t think the value of you should be just in others. The value of you is in you.

Have you found teaching to be life giving also?

Yeah, it’s so much fun, Paul. I love this community here in my really small studio. I love all these people coming in and a lot of times you know, they are running from their jobs and sometimes they are late, they still come, they sit here, they cannot move you know, (laughter) and they create and I see on their faces and how they are becoming relaxed and happy and they start to talk. It’s beautiful. I really very much love it.

Why is it important for you to be sharing a message of hope?

This project I think was very important for me and if you are creating something from this authentic experience then I think it applies to others because you are truthful and you open up. You say things that are not glossy and nice you say something what you really live, what you are really struggling with, you try to form it into an art piece and when you do it well then it communicates.

You are a busy person. You are a script writer, you are soon to be in school for your PhD, you are a ceramic artist, and you are a teacher. What do you do for fun?

You just named it, Paul. Obviously. Yeah, I turned my life into fun. That’s cool, no?