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Brielle Rovito | Episode 554
Brielle Rovito is a ceramicist and designer living and working in Burlington, Vermont. Brielle makes clean, sculptural forms that reference humanness, movement, and the body. Brielle work is best identified by oblong shapes and bulbous moments that hover between the functional/non-functional line.
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How important was that group of people that you were working with when you first started?
It was essential. I can confidently say I would not be here if it was not for that incubator space and on a side tangent part of what we did when we moved to Vermont is we intentionally rented a larger space and tried to recreate that in some way. When I moved here I was hoping to step into another studio similar to the one I had in Minneapolis and quickly found that that just didn’t exist, with the shared kiln and the shared community space. Not that we were so collaborative at my old studio that we were sharing ideas, but it was just the energy there that helped propel forward motion. So when we came to Vermont, when I decided to move my business here it was a bit scary because I did not really know how it was going to go. But we found this space, we really pushed hard with the vision of creating a community environment and that I could also help support other artists specifically who work in clay. I sold my car almost dollar for dollar and bought the big kiln that we have in the back room and then we found other artists to fill the space here.
Did you treat ceramics as a side hustle?
I think that is a pretty accurate way to define what it was in the beginning for me, yeah. I was going there early in the morning, to my studio before work, going there right away after work and I would say that it was a side hustle for quite awhile. And when I moved here it still was a side hustle but I was more intentional about how to positional myself so I didn’t get burnt out basically.
Did started the business help you discover all the things you needed to learn?
Oh yeah. I still feel like I am learning, quite frankly. But I just had no idea the technical part of the business that I really quickly needed to learn, but thankfully I had connections with people who I knew who I could go to for different aspects of it. And truthfully my dear husband has been the most incredible support person I could ask for in helping to keep me organized and staying on track with everything. He’s great and a good team mate.
There is a saying in the start up world, start before you are ready. How did that apply to you?
I had no idea what I wanted this to become when I started, I just knew that I wanted to start. So the energy that came with what felt like a thought out but spontaneous decision, spontaneous isn’t the right word but that kind of impulse of, I just have to do this. There is no other option to not try to not go for it with what I want to do. And I thankfully had people around me who were encouraging me and I wasn’t just doing this in a vacuum. So I definitely didn’t have all my ducks in a row in the beginning and it was rocky and it has been rocky in various parts of the process. In a lot of ways, quite frankly, when I moved to Vermont, that is when I felt like I was starting to take this seriously. Before then I was still working a full time job and it was still very much on the side. When I came to Vermont to again find a studio and set it up that was when I made the deeper commitment to say, this is what I am going to do.
You mentioned before that you were getting bored with your work. How did you keep from getting stuck?
You know, I think I needed to really needed to feel what being stuck felt like. Which sounds counter intuitive to your question but I don’t ever want to feel that again, feeling stuck and feeling like there is a lack of flowing and this block creativity and for me it was allowing myself a solid month that actually turned into a couple of months, allowing myself a solid month of saying, I don’t need to continue making my old work and I am going to take the “risk” that it is to explore in this new area and not know what is going to happen on the other end of it. I don’t have much advice in this area, but if it is possible to step back even for a week, to try something completely new or giving space for that idea to flush out or whatever, I think for me that was helpful.
How important is taking breaks for you?
It is becoming more important because for me anyway I can get really caught up in turning out work and kind of letting that wave of stress and pressure over take me. I am trying to do it where I don’t have to take such drastic breaks every six months or a year taking a big break and having it be this big ordeal. I am trying to pace is out more in my life. For example my husband and I just this past weekend went away and we didn’t have cell phone service and it was so refreshing. We are trying to build that into our lives a little better, sort of a Sabbath on a regular basis because it is easy to not and then you reach a breaking point where you feel like a crazy person and a break is sort of forced upon you, verses controlling it and having a better rhythm. So I am trying to be better at that, I still don’t have it figured out though.
What is your favorite date night?
Oh man, it’s simple. I am an easy ,cheap date. If I could have it my way, it would be a perfect sunset because where we live we can look out over Lake Champlain and the sun will set right behind the Adirondack Mountains in New York and the sunsets here are unreal. If anyone comes to Burlington come for the sunsets and you will never want to leave. I would watch the sunset with my husband and just sit there together and maybe talk and maybe not talk but that is my happy place right now and my favorite thing to share with him.
Book
Art and Fear by David Bayles and Ted Orland
Contact
Instagram: @dustandform