We were lucky to catch up with Nicole Gugliotti recently and have shared our conversation below.

Nicole, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?

I have always been interested in artwork that invites participation. I spent a good chunk of time in my young adulthood working for the organization Planned Parenthood as a clinic and surgical assistant. I had the thought that combining this work with my artwork would be a rich place to work from but it took what felt like a long time to make it happen. My first project was a long time in the making. My project STD Cups started as a tongue in cheek idea for a Octoberfest Pottery event and eventually became real, in a small local bar in Gainesville, FL. The name plays off of a colloquial term for sexually transmitted infections. The flyers I created played off of the term dis….ease. The idea is that the STD Cups would be used in the bar, a place known for making connections, and literally put the topic of safe sex on the table. The cups featured text, the name, diagnostic test and cure for 4 non-chronic stis, and images of the organism responsible. The hope was for frank conversation and peer to peer education to occur. In the first iteration, these conversations did crop up. In subsequent iterations, we’ve been joined by local Planned Parenthood Affiliates.

Working with organizations like Planned Parenthood, NARAL and Pro-choice Washington is a tradition I hope to continue.

Nicole, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

My name is nicole gugliotti. I am an artist and educator living in Olympia, WA. I primarily work in ceramics and teach ceramics and art appreciation at Tacoma Community College. I create functional work for the kitchen, garden and home as well as conceptual work for the gallery, sometimes they cross over.
I’m interested in the ways that art can educate, resist and create hope in a increasingly polarized
and brutal world and love to create work that invites participation.
After years of working in direct abortion services, I combined my interests to make work that intersects craft and reproductive justice.
Some of my project include the STD Cups, Awe/Agency, an abortion story project and Birth Control Tik Tac Toe.

Are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

I wish that I had access to information about neurodiversity earlier on in life. As the child of immigrants, it’s unlikely I’d have received help for my ADHD qualities even if women/afab folks of my generation had not gone gravely undiagnosed. I’m so thankful for social media and people sharing their lived experiences with neurodivergences of all sorts. I think I was lucky because I found art at a relatively young age and for whatever reason was able to white knuckle my way through many of the challenges of pursuing this kind of life. Coming from a working class family made access to art materials/programs difficult and maybe it’s because of my ADHD that when I wanted to do something I would find a way to do it even if I didn’t have the money or the know how.. These days, understanding how my brain works makes it so much easier to give myself grace and to trust my process even if it doesn’t look the way I think it’s supposed to look.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

In a word community. For me art and ceramics fulfill the part of my life that other people might dedicate to church or a favorite sports team. It’s a place for community, connection and for sharing. As an educator I get to share ceramics and the art world with students but I also get to share at exhibitions, pop-ups, Pride and community events. I love offering my kiln for others to fire in and sharing knowledge. I love that we can create so much with very little and be resources and supports for each other. I love that wherever I go in the word, I can connect with someone because I notice their t-shirt was hand printed that their hands are covered in paint or dry-ass clay skin.

Contact Info:

• Website: nicolegugliotticraft.com
• Instagram: nicolegugliotticraft
• Youtube: @artofthebudget

Image Credits
All photos were taken by me.