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Elena Vasilantonaki | Episode 592
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Do you think that the creativity that you are demonstrating now, do you think that was born in you or is that something that you nurtured and developed?
I think my creativity is a need. I need to be creative in order to be well, in order to be happy, in order to feel fulfilled. I didn’t know that when I was younger but still painting would make me feel better and that is why I wanted to do it. Later on when clay came into my life greater things happened. I remember in my pottery classes our teacher asked us to do a project named Metamorphosis. We were shown a video and then we were asked to do some research and drawings and sketches and some writing on our own. This is a time when feelings started to come to surface through this process. These feelings had been there but they were so suppressed because I was always very shy. They had never been given the opportunity to be expressed. This process liberated them. They came to the surface, it was quite an intense experience for me and it was at that point that I understood that clay and making with clay is more of a necessity for me than anything else. Not only because I express my pent up feelings but because through doing that I grow as a person. I get to know myself better and this whole journey of self discovery started at the time and it is still going on. This is very, very psycho-therapeutic for me.
Do you ever find creativity missing when you show up to work?
No, it hasn’t happened yet. But I tell you what. I don’t show up to work every day. Maybe that is why. Because I am also combining motherhood and pottery. I have only three days or four days a week that I spend in the studio. The other days are devoted to the family. So during those other days that I don’t go down to my studio I still think about what I am going to do when I go down there and I am so looking forward to doing this idea and that idea, my ideas are driving me crazy so I am looking forward to next Monday that I am going down to the studio. So when I go there it is kind of ready in my head what I want to do. I am also very impatient. I want to start doing because I have limited time.
Do you have a routine that you use that helps to trigger your creative bent?
It is not a routine. I like to take a lot of photographs when I travel, when I walk outdoors, during my summer time vacation in Crete. I am very close to nature, I have the opportunity to visit museums and be very close to the Minoan civilization. I draw a lot of inspiration from that. So I take a lot of photographs and I go back to them during winter time that I spend here in Athens in my studio. Yes, and this is how it all works for me. Also I gather material from Crete while I am there, I gather sand, I gather wild clay from the cliffs, I gather ashes from the fire rings that we have during family meals, different minerals, small stones, and I bring all that with me back. I have it in my studio surrounding me and this is all very inspiring of course. I always ask myself, how can I incorporate them in my work. This is something that is of great interest to me, how can I incorporate materials that come from my island home to my work.
Is it important for you to have a creative community around you in order for you to be creative yourself?
No. I am not very social. I don’t know a lot of people that are potters like me here in Athens. I am basically a loner. I like to just be alone in my studio and make. I don’t socialize a lot, I have to admit. I do socialize on Instagram. But not so much in the real world.
When you start a piece do you actually see the finished product that you want to create?
Yes, I visualize the finished product but then I know kind of that I shouldn’t raise my expectations too high. And that I should be open to happy accidents or maybe change during the process because most of the time I start with a vision and I end up with something maybe close to what I had envisioned but maybe completely different.
What is that feeling for you when you see your finished product for the first time?
Well, you know, there is always a fast heart beat when you open the kiln. Sometimes it is love at first sight. Other times it is not so pleasant. There is a bit of disappointment but I have learned not to rush to conclusions. I mean there has been numerous times that I have taken pieces out of the kiln and I have said, Oh no, this is not what I expected. And then as I have lived with the piece day after day, month after month, there are certain qualities that I love about it. And maybe in the end it becomes one of my favorite pieces. So I think it is wrong to have expectations. It is hard not to but the more you have the more imprisoned you are by them. If that makes any sense. I like the element of surprise, I like the element of experimenting and sometimes when I put things in the kiln I really don’t know how they will come out if I try materials for the first time, let’s say. I have a vision of how they may come out or how I would like them to come out but when I actually look at them of course I am surprised and the more I look at them the more is discover stuff that I like or not like.
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