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Mitch Lyons | Episode 324
Mitch Lyons earned his masters degree in ceramics after completing his undergraduate degree in graphics. Since 1980 he has been a full-time artist, creating clay monoprints and ceramic vessels. His work can be found in the Brooklyn Museum of Art and Delaware Art Museum, as well as many private collections.
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From your perspective what makes a good artist?
What makes a good artist? I guess someone who is willing to change people’s perspective.
What makes good art?
I imagine you are asking me what good art is. I find good art everywhere. Nature. I love to look around. I will spend my mornings looking at shadows. Or driving down the highway looking at negative spaces between trees and things like that. To me that is art. Art doesn’t have to be in museums.
How does a person become an artist?
I don’t know. I mean I don’t know how I became an artist. I never think of myself as a good artist. I think of myself as a working artist.
How do you keep creativity alive?
Well, I try to go to the studio for the first time every day. I’m excited about my work and I’m excited about the process all the time. My whole life outside of paying bills and things like that, is devoted to my work. I used to think that my life revolved around my work but when my wife died I think I began to see that maybe that is not true. It revolved more around my family. My center is my work so I have no problem being creative with my work.
How do you and Meredith tell each other that you love each other?
I don’t think you have to say it. That’s not important. Although we do say it once in a while to each other. It’s your attitude, it’s your personality, it’s the unsaid things that are important. I feel her love and I think she feels my love. She knows I am very dedicated. I am a one woman man. I don’t like to disrupt my life as an artist. That would be a tremendous loss to me if I had mental problems or marital problems. So I work at it by an example.
Book
Color: A Natural History of the Palette
The Artist’s Handbook of Materials and Techniques
Contact:
Instagram: @mitchlyonsstudio