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Arthur Halvorsen | Episode 735
Arthur Halvorsen work uses bright colors, textures and patterns on earthenware, gathering inspiration from pop art, coloring books and tattoos. Arthur is a Mudflat studio artist, he teaches classes and workshops at Mudflat but also teaches at Lesley University in Cambridge MA and and other venues nationally as a visiting artist. Arthur’s work has been featured in Ceramics Monthly, Pottery Making Illustrated, Studio Potter, ArtScope Magazine, and on WCVB Channel 5; Chronicle. Arthur has been recognized as a 2019 Brother Thomas Fellow recipient for his work in the field of ceramics within the Boston area.
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If I were to describe your work in terms of emotions I would say happiness. Do you want your work to invoke a certain response emotionally?
Honestly I see my work as the drag queens of pottery. Because just like a drag queen my pots only come out when it’s special. So my mugs might be used on a day to day basis but not a cake stand, not a lobster platter, or anything like that. Maybe hanging on the wall and that’s enough. My work I see, it’s like celebratory items or things that I make, so like a birthday or like a cake. A cake you don’t get every single day, I don’t anyway. So a cake stand is not going to be used all the time.
Why do you like the brightness of the colors?
I think that just shows off my personality. My most recent pots have never felt more me. Like I am not trying to be someone else. Out of college or whatever…what did Anne say..she said, Oh, Arthur your pots are very Radasch, Horie, Schwarzkopfian . So Kari Radasch, Ayumi Horie, and Deborah Schwatzkopf. And I was like, Really, you put those three in a blender and you get me? Okay. But I don’t think so anymore.
Do you intentionally try to have your own voice and make sure it is just you and not a copy of someone else?
Yes. The first thing I thought about outside of college was… well first I took a workshop with Kari Radasch after I graduated that January. During the Christmas break they do workshops and this was a week long thing. And I remember thinking the hardest thing to come up with was my own color palette, especially being in a community studio, how am I going to make my own color palette that’s true to me. I am a product of Nickelodeon , of just watching TV, playing sports, nerf, Lisa Frank, like bright colors so that just came with me I guess, I don’t know, but I don’t shy away from them. If I have to pare it down and limit myself it’s very difficult. (laughter) But I enjoy a challenge like that every now and then too. I just like color, a lot.
Where do you want your pieces to abide?
In the home, coming out for special things. Not necessarily in the curio cabinet just collecting dust and never being used, but appreciated. I love the fact that I gave each of the drag queens at an event a mug and I saw one of them later that summer and she was like, Oh yeah, that’ s holding my makeup brushes. I love that. I think that’s awesome.
When you think of who your perfect customer is, who would you say that is?
Hipster girl that shops at Anthropologie. Or an eighty year old woman.
So I’m curious, when you are making do you have those people in your mind?
What I think about…I try to get the audience that’s not really invested into the work or art in general or whatever. So when little boys come around with their parents or whatever they get really excited about my pieces because I will throw in a dump truck or a garbage truck in there and a scissor lift too and the fact that they can relate to it and they play with those toys, my things look toy-like because they are very simple and line quality and stuff like that. I don’t try to make it complicated. It’s not about that for me. So that I like. Especially because I get boys excited about pottery. That doesn’t happen a lot. It is kind of gendered in a way, that girls tend to gravitate toward it more. In my experience and from what I have seen.
Where is your favorite place to go during that pandemic?
My studio. I am so glad that I…I forget who said it…we had a visiting artist who said, Make your studio a place where you want to be. And so you can probably see on my Instagram or in my stories at least, I have a disco ball hanging and I have crazy Christmas lights that blink and I have a laser light show on. I call it Club Arthur because I will play loud dance music. Every thing from Britney Spears to Dolly Parton and everything in between. That’s where I want to be. I do dance breaks if I want to especially when I am alone. It’s awesome.
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Instagram: @arthurhalvorsen