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Vicente Garcia | Episode 498
Vicente is on the left
Vicente Garcia is involved in producing a body of work that includes vessels in clay, clay and steel, and steel sculptures. In ceramics Vicente’s expertise is in primitive firing techniques, primarily raku and pit fires. In steel Vicente focuses on the fabrication process using many kinds of metals.
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What made you decide to build your own studio?
A lot of times people have a misconception, Oh, you work at the university, you are a professor, you have access to all this awesome space and studio. Well, I think some professors do. But with me, I tell people, I walk into that building and I actually park illegally all the time, the cops know we so it’s good. I walk into the back door and I walk into some questions. And then I’m leaving at night and I’m answering questions as I’m leaving so me making something is almost like never. So my heaven, in my backyard, is my studio where I can separate myself from all of that. So I build a shop, I think it is fifty yards from my house and it is designed specifically for my clay and my steel work.
How do you fund something for your own creative making at home?
Well, it funds itself. I didn’t build it until 2005. I moved to Connecticut back in 1995. You know, I had a gallery, I had a studio, which was awesome. My first child was born and we found this beautiful piece of property with three acres, my poor wife spent seven months looking for it. I think I looked at seven and she looked at eighty. We were fortunate and I saved money over time and once we started building I had enough and I built it with my buddy Steve and it took us eighteen months, a pay as you go kind of thing. It was nice and slow but it came out exactly the way I wanted it.
You said it paid for itself. So I am curious about your ceramic sales. Do you keep that income separate from your budget?
Absolutely. So there is a business account by itself, there’s a PayPal account on the website. All of that money is separate from the household income. I don’t let any university money come into the studio, that has to pay for the family budget, college, all of those things. If I want to buy a new piece of equipment the business has to purchase it. So it is all self-sustaining.
You have used your ceramics to build a studio. Has it also given you the ability to travel and go to other places?
Yes. The play money for me as an individual comes from the studio. Fortunate in being a university professor I can choose to or not to teach in the summer. I taught one summer over my 22 years of teaching. Any toys come from the studio. Any hobbies come from the studio. I mentioned fishing, yup, a little side money to get that boat. But we travel every summer and I love to fish the Gulf of Mexico. Yes, a lot of it comes from the studio.
Do you bring other people into your studio to work or to see you work?
I do. Over the years local public schools pretty much from all over Connecticut, they come to my studio for day long workshops in Raku and pitfires. I have a lot of public schools that like to come and spend the whole day with me here and that’s what we do-Raku and pit. We have open studio every May for one week-end in May and people come and see where we work and what we do.
Do you ever use any commercial glazes?
I do use commercial glazes, especially, I love reds, yellows, oranges, and blues. I do love some of the low-fire glazes that I could work hard and get them by making them. Especially the Duncan glazes, probably because those are the first ones I used. I like to combine them with my Raku and put them underneath in some cases. All that said, I look around my shop and I have a lot of them but it probably has been a year since I opened one of those containers. But I do use commercial glazes, especially those colors.
Book
Clay and Glazes by James Chappell
Contact:
Instagram: @vicentegarciaart