We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Michelle Im a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Michelle, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.

I self-directed my own education in ceramics after my undergraduate studies. In college I started off on the BFA track and then switched to study biological sciences, minoring in art. Most people are curious about where I “studied” and some may categorize my background as “self-taught” but I find that term to be wildly inconsistent with how humans learn which is not in a vacuum. With clay being a medium that has history going back to the beginning of civilization, I think whether you are academically trained or have collected knowledge through experience, information is constantly being absorbed by a collective history. I can say that I have dedicated the first 8 years of the past 12 years of my ceramics practice to absorb enough technical skills, historical knowledge, artistic experimentation, to be able to grow into my voice. And even so, I’m still learning. While acknowledging everyone learns at different paces I think for me, the idea of speeding up my learning process sounds like altering my journey and it is hard to imagine that my work would have arrived at the same point if I had taken a different route in a shorter duration of time. Some essential skills that I think are important especially working in ceramics in an urban environment like New York City is actually having skills that aren’t related to clay to provide the resources and time necessary to develop your practice. Ironically, I think this ties in with the following question of what the obstacles are. Creating this balance between studio life and practicum is a continuous learning curve and when crafted with care, I believe that creativity can be harnessed because it lives in everything and presents itself everywhere.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I got into ceramics after having spent some time trying to paint. I felt lost in painting. Even though my work in ceramics involves surface decoration, when I look back I think that the flat canvas just didn’t create meaning in my life in the way I wanted it to. When I started learning ceramics, it really clicked in a way that felt like a union of things. It involves a wide variety of subjects in one that peaked my interest. Having had a background in both biology and art in undergrad, ceramics as a discipline made the most sense to me as it uses physics, chemistry, geology, archaeology, and literally the ground, as a vehicle for artistic expression. My studio practice moves between sculpture and tableware and continues to evolve with each question I ask myself. What do I want to say specifically through mud? My tableware line called ‘RATxCHICKS’ is a more boisterous and humorous approach to the medium with maximalist surface decoration that drives each narrative. The name itself is a play on the words ‘ratchet’ and ‘rat chicks”. I form each piece by hand and I create small objects like mugs, bowls, plates, and one of my specialty forms are butter dishes. The butter dish format has endless possibilities. I’ve made numerous versions so far but never two of the same. Each one is a personal story and an expression of my relationship (or interpretation of it) with my client who will receive it and enjoy it with their families and friends for a long time. Although I rarely get to see how these butter dishes live out their lives in their forever homes, I’m proud of each piece that goes out. And I like to think when my clients use them, it brings texture and feelings of connectedness in their personal lives. My sculptural work I think at its core is about fostering connectedness as well but it looks more inward into my personal life and my identity as a Korean-American woman. Like peeling back an onion, through sculpture, I’m able to take off the outer skin which is the ornate web of pattern elements that are woven together into the surface painting in my tableware line. Through sculpture, I’m interested in exploring themes about home, displacement and my cultural identity. Through the lens of ceramics history and researching traditional Korean ceramic art, I explore clay vessels as a metaphor for human beings. And often, it leads me to investigate and look more closely at the historical and cultural forces that affect my relationship to both of my cultures. Facing the duality of individualistic vs collectivistic values held in America vs. Korea respectively, I’m confronting the differences but also through my artwork, I’m looking to create harmony. This idea sits at the core of both functional and sculptural work. As to the question of what problems I solve, I think the problem is beyond the material realm and I want to address feelings of alienation in such a consumerist, product-driven society. It is about creating pieces that expresses values I hold which is honesty. I think with honesty one can create harmony out of the nonsensical physical world and that can lead to feelings of unity within our collective humanity. That is what I want to see and that is what I think of when I make my work.

What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?

Universal Basic Income. It’s simple.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

Find truth.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.ratxchicks.club
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/ratxchicks