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Sasha Barrett | Episode 717
Using earthenware clay, Sasha Barrett makes functional and decorative pots. The surfaces of Sasha’s forms are painted using heavy, colorful brushstrokes to create a feeling of movement and mood. Sasha throws his pots on a slow turning kick-wheel. Sasha finds inspiration from his home country of Ukraine.
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When you say it is like improv does that mean it has no direction and is completely happenstance?
No, it has a lot of direction. It’s like I do have an end in sight and a goal and something I am striving for and the way that happens is more the improv part.
So you are stilling willing to have an end goal but the pathway is okay to be a bit serpentine. Is that accurate?
Yeah, I have goals and dreams and plans with my ceramics but all I really have control over is today. If I am going to make pots today and they are not the type of pots that maybe I envisioned at the start. That’s okay. I am still going to make them. I don’t know, I kind of look at it like that, a little loose.
How important is paying attention to be able to know how to respond or how to move next?
Very important, yeah. I pay attention to details and do some research. I like a lot of Ukrainian folk art or Polish folk art and Persian forms and stuff. I really like volume based forms with small little feet. So I do pay attention a lot and it comes out in my work probably. I get inspired by something and then I will try to reflect on it and make it or make my version of it. So there’s a lot of detail but it can change I guess.
Part of paying attention is that with improv there is a certain amount of just being obvious with your behavior, like if you are acting you have to be very obvious with what you are communicating to the world around you. So how does that come out in terms of being obvious with your work and your intentions, how does that play out as a pottery trying to find a path to getting their work out there?
I guess the obvious part is function for me. I am making functional pottery, like mugs and bowls and stuff like that. I think they vary from pot to pot just based on size, they are not all completely identical in size or handle style. I tend to do a lot of different handles. Like one finger handles or multiple, and play around with that a little bit. But I think I have worked hard in the past to hone in on a general style. And I just play around within the boundary of that. They vary from one another but they are also one body of work.
How does accepting that you are not in control give you the peace to know that is it okay to be out of control?
Yeah, well in the past years I have had just life stuff going on and what I have learned from that I have always wanted to be the director of my own life, but what I have learned from that by a lot of mistakes is that really all I have control over is just the present moment. And I just try to stay in that and just accept what is going to happen after that. I do just try to stay present.
How critical is it to be willing to trust that the “scene” will evolve, that the dream will evolve?
It’s important to have faith and trust in it. I am working, I am working a lot and I think that’s all that I really have to do is just try to do the next right thing and work towards a passion that I do have. I think it is always evolving. I don’t have a doubt in that. I have always loved making pots and I will continue making pots. In the future maybe I will buy a truck and become a mover and my professional pottery career will be put on hold. But I am still going to make pots it’s just going to be a little change where my income is more from running crews and doing that. And I am okay with that and that’s part of the improv part.
Improv is best done in a group. How do you pull that part of the process of being a potter ,with an end dream, knowing you can’t do it alone?
I think collaboration is amazing. I think we all as a human species, we all kind of depend on one another to a certain degree. I think just being open minded and being able to work with others, whether that’s collaborating on a project or some kind of pottery sale or just individually collaborating on pieces. I just think you have to be open and learn from one another and not be stuck in your own ways.
Book
Living in the Country Growing Weird by Dennis Parks
Contact
Instagram: @sashabarrettceramics