The Importance of Exposure | Justin Donofrio | Episode 406

Justin Donofrio grew up in Santa Cruz, CA where he was introduced to pottery at Cabrillo Community College. Justin then joined the vibrant Colorado community of artist in 2013 in the Roaring Fork Valley where he continued his clay education with the support of Anderson Ranch, The Carbondale Clay Center, and The Studio for Arts and Works (SAW). Justin remained in Colorado to complete a Bachelors of Fine Arts degree from CSU Fort Collins in 2016. Justin is nationally represented in galleries throughout the U.S. Justin was an exhibiting artist and tour manager with the Artstream Nomadic Gallery in 2017 and will be again in 2018. Justin will also be participating in Art of the Pot (Austin Ceramic Studio Tour) in the spring 2018.

Currently Justin maintains a full time studio pottery at Art 342 in Fort Collins. The diversity of the front range of the Rockies lends itself to a balance between Justin’s love of rock climbing, the outdoors, and the arts. Justin’s palette of color and form are drawn from the exquisite and enduring beauty of the alpine landscape.

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When you were a child what did you want to grow up to be?

I think I wanted to be a professional baseball player for a little while, or some kind of athlete when I was much younger. Although I stopped playing team based sports pretty young because I was in a car accident and I hurt my back kinda bad. So probably some form of an athlete.

What is some of the best business advice that you have ever received?

I think especially, specifically if you want to be a potter I think if you are not willing to live in a tent and sacrifice a lot of creature comforts, especially in the beginning. If you are not willing to put in the hard work to begin with you probably should choose something else. Clay is a lot of work. In order to make it as a young potter sometimes you might need to sacrifice some of that stuff especially to start out.

What is some of the best studio advice you ever received?

You just got to keep plugging away. Although at times when you are working on a new form or something sometimes you’ve got to step out of the room and walk away for a minute and come back in and see what happens. At times you are so intensely in it you need to change that perspective. I think that is important for me a lot, changing the perspective.

What will success look like for you as a full time potter?

I don’t know. I just would love to be doing it and able to do it in some capacity. I want other people to be involved in the conversation of clay. I don’t know what specifically is successful. Most people’s stories, from people who are doing really well maybe a generation before me or so are in a crazy amount of debt and I am no different. It is not a financial successfulness in a lot of ways. I think some of the best advice I got when I first thought of going back to school for ceramics, my pottery teacher at the time said ; Alright man, it’s not going to be the quantity of life it is going to be the quality and you gotta be OK with that. I think that is the successful part for me, it is the quality of life that I want to be living.

What is a fear that keeps you up at night?

Money. No, I’m just kidding.

I had a dream the other night that my teeth were falling out and my partner was saying that that means you are scared about money or that you have a fear of money. So I guess that’s happening. No, maybe that I smash myself climbing one day and I might not be able to make anymore. I don’t know.

How do you find your creative voice?

I think just through exploring but also it just kind of hits you. With this work it just started to evolve and kind of happen in a way. I think it was fermenting there for a while. Having people there to bounce ideas off of is important and is something that I have been missing. I think looking at history is really important and something I learned a lot when I was in school. It is hard when a lot of contemporary ceramic people or young people in the field are only looking at people who are making in the field right now. I think looking back at history, I mean my work now stems from looking at Korean pottery and that beautiful volume and thinking how I want it to take that on a little bit.