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Celia Feldberg | Episode 738
Celia Feldberg graduated with a BFA in ceramics from MassArt in 2019. Celia is currently focusing on wheel thrown and sgraffitoed red clay pottery. Celia draws animals to tell stories about our everyday lives and emotions.
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When you are making your cups do you have a story line that you are following and trying to capture that story line with the scenes you are creating?
Yeah, definitely. The narrative quality of these is something that is really exciting for me. I think when I first kind of realized I was doing it I had done this mug with a bear biking on one side and then on the other side there was a sign that said, Fresh Pies. And I realized that I was telling a story about a bear that was biking to get some pies and I didn’t realize that it was that simple to create a narrative. I usually start with either the situation or the characters, then I go from there.
Do you have your characters fully developed in your mind? Like what motivates this bear? What motivates this elephant?
I think these bears and raccoons and foxes really like to have a good time and they appreciate the little moments. Like when you are about to eat something really good or just hanging out with some good friends.
Do you end up working in terms of series’, so you have a bear going through various stages of life or experiences but you know it’s the same character?
I think so. I feel like they are all connected. They are all everyday things.
Do you have names for the characters you have created?
No, I don’t have names for them.
I think that’s great. They just show up and are a part of something.
Yeah, they are just the bears.
Do you get a story line from your customer or patron before you start making the work?
Yeah, I think that goes back to how I was saying how creating a narrative can be so simple because the character is doing something, right? And then you have a story so by being…and the details and the location fill in the rest. So with that one, the bear and the elephant are kissing and they are in the kitchen but there is definitely a story there. And I feel like that is all they really needed to say to me for me to be able to tell that story.
How many questions do you ask your customers to come up with a scene or do they have to tell you a scene?
They tell me the scene. Sometimes I will get pictures. Like I got some sweet pictures of a family sitting in their tea garden having tea and then the two kids sitting on this special bench and I was able to then take those details, from what their tea garden looked like, what that bench looked like and what their tea kettle looked like and actually draw those objects on the mug. Which I think makes it all that much more personal. So I will take as much details as people are willing to give me and try to incorporate them in.
Do you send them the cups or do you send them pictures of the cups before you send them?
I just send them off and I will send them pictures as well. But I feel like by that point there’s nothing that I am going to change at least. It’s already done. so I just send them off.
Have you had any feedback that was a sign of disappointment?
Not so far.
If you were to sit down an draw a mug, a character of you, what animal would you be?
That’s such a good question. Either a fox or a bear.
Why a fox? Why a bear?
Okay, so the foxes sort of came from this trip I took to England and we stayed with some family friends who were taking care of some orphaned fox cubs. And they were so sweet and so playful and I loved drawing them and I have since loved drawing foxes. And the bears are sort of representations of my friends, I would say. And I kind of feel like everyone could be represented by a bear. They feel very human to me.
Book
What Makes a Potter by Janet Koplos
Contact
Instagram: @cel.fel