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Logan Bishop | Episode 525
Logan Bishop was born in Louisville, Kentucky. Logan is an emerging artist residing in Louisville, Kentucky. He received his high school diploma from Saint Xavier High School in 2014. He received his BFA, emphasis on 3D in ceramics, from the University of Louisville in the spring of 2019. He has had work in displayed at the Cressman Center for Visual Arts for an annual student exhibition show, as well as the Louisville Hite Art Institute Gallery for his thesis exhibition. Logan’s current work explores the nature of the surface of a utilitarian vessel limiting its utility but increasing its visual presence within the space.
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When you are putting together the BFA show are you trying to explain an idea through the show?
I want to convey my thesis that I wrote through the show. I don’t only want to represent my work, I want to represent what my work is representing. So in my thesis statement I talk a lot about serendipitous moments. Not only in the making process of making the actual form, but also in the glaze movement and then in the firing process. I am really interested in controlling and lack of control that I have over this substance. I can make a machined pot but I don’t want to. For example, when I make my tea bowls I throw them fairly thick and I throw a cylinder and I facet them using a cheese cutter. You know, it’s been done a hundred times, but I did it in my own way. So I vary the thickness and thinness. The exciting part for me is not the cuts, it’s what the cuts do whenever I stretch it out. So as I stretch it out the plasticity of the porcelain that I use gives me these subtle cracks and the also take the facets that I make and start to tear them apart as well. And you just start to see curving and bending and distortions. It gives a nice movement and fluidity. So what I am trying to do, I want to show how each work can vary and how I don’t have control over it.
How much of your grade is dependent upon your show?
It’s not really about the grade at this point. For my professor it’s just, make your work. The grade isn’t important. I don’t want to say he is a lax grader, but at this point in my life, he’s like, You definitely know what you are doing. Keep doing what you are doing. Just put on a killer show.
How much involvement does your professor have in this final process?
As far as my work goes I always have one on one critiques with them. After every firing, when I unload, I sit down with them and say, Hey, lets look at this new work, I’ve got photos of my unload, I have photos of my stack. what do you believe is working. What do I believe is working? Because I want to know what he thinks, but I also want to know what I think. So he does have an influence on me as my professor, but at the same time the ultimate decision comes down to me and he lets that happen.
What about your peers? Do they give you feedback? Are you involving them in the process?
Every chance I get. I was making a bottle last month and I decided to scale up so I faceted the side and I finally stretched it out and something happened. I looked at Kendall and said, When you get a minute, I need you. He was like, What do you need me for? and I said, We have got to talk about some work. Because they are older than me and I am one of the younger students and they have been able to be around vessels longer and not just making vessels but going to NCECA and seeing established artists and talking about forms. So their opinion is very important for me.
Has this experience at NCECA given you any kind of direction or change that you wanted to do for the show?
Not really a change for the show, but it definitely has given me a drive to take my show work to that next level. I have worked really hard and I was ready to relax and take a break. My show is here, I deserve it. And after talking to people and meeting with them here, they have all given me this reinforcement that I am headed in the right direction and we like your work. Which is huge for me. It is really encouraging and now I just want to get home and make more work.
Now that you are ready to graduate, what is the plan for the next step?
That’s a good question. So, my professor is going to hire me on as the studio tech. It is a just a small part-time position, but it allows me to stay in the studio for free and use the chemicals and still fire the kilns. Because I haven’t quite decided what I want to do., honestly. I love the thought of an MFA, but at the same time, I love teaching. I am really strong in that community aspect and I want to give back to students what Kevin gave to me. that spark, that energy, that caring. It is so much fun to see them evolve and for them to understand it and to understand it at a level that you can. So I am debating between an MFA and potentially a Masters in Education as well.
How much pressure do you have coming into this feeling like, I hope this goes well? Tell me about the pressure. Do you have that?
Not anymore. Honestly, I fired Saturday and unloaded Monday night right before we flew out Tuesday, so I had some of that anxiety thinking, Man, I really need some blue bottles for this show. I need them to come out. This has to be a good firing. It wasn’t a stress from other people. I think it was just more internally, because I want to put on a good show.
Book
Soda, Clay and Fire by Gail Nichols
Contact
Instagram: @bishop_pottery