Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Interview with a Clay Muse

I recently did an email interview with The Clay Muse. Her real name is Christina Headley and as you are about to find out, she's a very talented and passionate artist. Christina follows my blog and when I did a "shout out" for artists to be featured on my blog, Christina was the first to respond.

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What's your passion? My one true passion in life is knowledge. I'm happiest when I'm learning something new. Now that I've finally graduated from college I'd been missing the daily infusion of new knowledge, so I took it upon myself to learn a new craft. I'm currently learning to knit and it's oh so much fun!


How long have you been interested in art? For as long as I can remember I've been an artist. Artistic ability runs in the family, my Grandmother used to be a life still artist, and my Mother dabbled in illustrations and cartoons until she settled on a career as a hairdresser. They always encouraged me to be a better artist, showing me new techniques as I grew older and supporting me in what we now joke as my artistic a.d.d.

What sets you apart from other artists? I think it may be my vast interests and inability to focus on just one medium. Most artists I know are good at many things, painting and glass blowing, pencil portraits and pottery, but most focus on one medium to perfect, usually their biggest passion. For me it doesn't really matter what project or medium I'm up to my elbows in, as long as I'm creating something I'm happy as a clam.

Do you have a signature style? It's hard to say since I'm so spread out. I think if one looks to just my clay work there is a noticeable dominance of primary/bright colors. I think if pressed I'd say yes! and It's quirky!

Do you have a work studio? Well that one's a yes and a no. My man and I just bought our house in September. Our spare room is in the process of becoming my craft room, but as we both came from tiny little one room apartments we sadly lack the furniture right now. So currently my work studio is the living room. My "new" (read his sister's old) coffee table has six cubbies with square baskets in them. This is where the majority of my clay materials are residing at the moment. I bought a table and two nice chests at a garage sale two weeks ago, so I'm looking forward to starting to put together a real studio space soon.

What inspires you? How corny is it to say everything? It really is true though. I'm inspired by everything around me, from the games I play, books I read, just the colors of clay hanging out together. I think the perfect example of this phenomena is the creation of the Hearts all a flutter jewelry. I had been building a base for a figurine out of bits and bobs of scrap clay and decided that it didn't need a base after all. So I smushed up the base and put it aside. Over the course of a week it sat there, I played with it a bunch when thinking, it wound up rolled in a log. I needed a sliver of clay for something or other, so I took a slice off the log, and I was amazed at the swirls of colors. I didn't know what I would use them for at first but I started taking chunks of the scrap and pushing them into a little heart mold I made a while ago. Then I started taking slices of the log and rolling them very thin and covering the hearts. Those beads became my first ever bracelet, and two matching heart pendants.

What aspirations do you have with your art? Mostly I want to continue developing artistically, getting better and learning new techniques and crafts. Ideally I'd love to be able to make a serious living creating things. I only recently started selling my creations, and have since been sucked into a sort of social vortex, meant to help promote my shop, where I actually do very little promoting and lots of chitter chattering.

Your favorite thing to do when you are not being creative? I love to bop around the internet, I'm a video game geek, I have a PS3, a World of Warcraft account and a Pink Nintendo DS. My man and I have been enjoying the occasional aimless drives through the middle of nowhere (we keep winding up in NY!). And most of all I love just hanging with my man and our friends, laughing like fools at some obscure reference that no one but us would ever understand. It's a pretty good life, and I'm lucky to be living it!

What do you think is your greatest success? To be honest, when I started answering these questions over a week ago I was torn on how to answer this question. Well this weekend I attended my college graduation, even though I completed my courses in December, it didn't hit home until I was putting my diploma on the mantle. I graduated, it took 8 long years and lots of heart ache, credits that were never used, and long stretches away from school but I did it! This weekend I received my A.A. in Social Science, with honors: Magna Cum Laude, Phi Theta Kappa. I'm so proud of myself that I'm getting a little teary eyed just typing this out. That clinches it, graduation has got to be my greatest success.

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If you can't feel the energy and passion of this young artist then it's time for another cup of coffee! I really admire Christina's exuberance and love for art. According to her blog, she's 26 years old and it appears she will have a long and happy career creating art in what ever medium it takes her.


If you would like to know more about Christina here are some links...


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If you would like to be featured on my blog, send me an email. It's fun and inspiring to read about artists, their styles, their workshops, their education, and their aspirations.



2 comments:

capitalcitycrafts said...

a super interview!

TheClayMuse said...

Debbie, thank you so much for the wonderful feature and the kind words.

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