Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Melissa Gust. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Melissa, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Are you happier as a creative? Do you sometimes think about what it would be like to just have a regular job? Can you talk to us about how you think through these emotions?
Oof, this is something I think about more frequently than most. Being an artist is no joke. I think society looks at an artist like they’re just playing around or refusing to “get a real job”. I had that “real job” out of college and lost it at the start of COVID-19. Little do most people know is that there’s so much more to it than that. Being a full time artist means that you’re not only the one creating the work, but you also have to be the marketer, salesperson, bookkeeper, shipper, customer service, quality control, and do all the grunt work. I feel that ceramics is especially difficult because each individual piece is handmade and is true to itself along with so much grunt work behind the scenes. Most two dimensional artists sell prints of their works but that’s not an option for ceramics.
With that said, I take so much pride in knowing that each piece I make is truly one of a kind and is just that much more special because of it. I put so much time and energy into each piece because they are all freehand drawn, etched, and painted. There are days when I spend 12 hours to carve one piece and to be honest it gets exhausting. My style specifically takes so much detail that I’m not able to produce much. While the finished results make me proud, it’s disheartening to see how few pieces I create. On the other hand I absolutely love what I do. I love the freedom and flexibility in my schedule. There’s a hustle factor that I live for during the busy seasons, which is 9 months out of the year. Then there’s the reaction when someone finds their perfect piece. When someone picks up a piece and is just in awe of the detail, the functionality, and the uniqueness, there is no feeling quite like it. It’s the validation that what I’m doing speaks to people and means that someone is benefitting from my work. What I do is not easy and there’s a lot that goes into clay. But at the end of the day seeing the joy my work brings to people really truly makes my career path worth it.
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.
Growing up, I was always a creative child. In high school I would take as many art classes as possible, including AP art. It was a dream of mine to be an artist but I didn’t have that drive I knew it would take to make it. So I decided to find a more “realistic” path by majoring in economics and Chinese language when I started college in Fall 2014. I was determined to receive at least a minor in arts when I got to college, but after my first art course with an unsavory professor, I pushed that aside and stuck to my first plan. I originally was enrolled in a private school (Carthage College) and had to work just about full time to be able to pay for my tuition. I was able to keep this up for about two years but it took it’s toll. My last semester I spent there was a lot with juggling 18 credits and working five days a week, which wore me out. Spring of 2016 I decided to try one more college art course after a year and a half hiatus from anything art related. This class opened my eyes again for the love and passion that I had for drawing and painting. The realization sealed my fate and I transferred to UMN in fall 2016 and decided to pursue art against the concerns of others. Now when I made this decision to transfer, I couldn’t picture what that would mean to me and a potential career. I figured I would do this, get an education degree as well, and then teach high school art. I just knew that I wanted to pursue something that would sooth my soul rather than something that would make me money.
I originally was going to focus on drawing and painting as my medium for a Bachelors of Art. One prerequisite for a BA was to take a three dimensional course, which I decided to take ceramics. I didn’t actually start working with clay until I transferred to the University of Minnesota. Once I got my hands on clay I never looked back. I think I was most excited with the idea that I can create something that has a functional purpose. Most things that I made early on were these functional vessels whether it be a cup, bowl, plate etc. It was exciting and refreshing to try new processes, failing, and then learning from those failures. I gained the confidence and skill set to apply and get into the Bachelors of Fine Arts program and that really started to shift my outlook on the ceramic medium. Within this program, we toured galleries (which I never really did before) and I would start envisioning my work in these spaces. I started to shift my work towards sculpture in hopes of being in a gallery space one day. The work I made started getting larger, making 4-5 foot tall vessels as a representation of various stages of my life.
After graduating with my BFA in 2019 I found a community studio in Golden Valley called Fired Up Studios. I set up a space there to continue my practice but they didn’t have to ability to accommodate really large work. I was also now in “the real world”, so in my head if I were to ever have income from my practice I needed to find a better way to do so. So I started to shift my intention with clay back to a more functional approach. I really started to become a dedicated wheel thrower and practice to find forms that I could find comfort in. I have a slight coffee addiction and for me a mug is everything. I spent years working on the right shape, size, weight, and handle grip to create a mug that spoke to me as a consumer. While I was really excited with the physical shape of my work, it just felt like another mug. Nothing captivated the eye, but it was nice to hold. So I started to look up different ceramic surface design techniques to try and set my work apart from others. I started to play around with sgraffito designs. The process of this is to apply an underglaze (essentially clay paint) or slip (colored liquid clay) to surface of your clay and then carve a design through the underglaze or slip to show the clay body color. This creates a two toned design on the surface of your piece. With my drawing and painting background, I was able to catch on pretty quickly and find ways to get some really nice detail within my work. I carved a lot of insects and flowers to start, mainly bees and coneflowers.
The amount of little details in insects is incredible and challenging to draw correctly. Bugs were the first for me to draw because of that challenge and I always like to incorporate some of their natural surroundings to add a little more depth. This design approach resembles visually to a printmaking relief print with the crips lines and high contrast. About a year after learning the sgraffito process, I saw someone adding color into the carved parts of their pieces and I found that fascinating. Turns out it’s a different process called mishima or inlay. I was able to take my sgraffito approach and now add an extra element to really get some added detail. This opened up so many more avenues for my work and eventually led me to my own interpretation of Starry Night by Vincent Van Gogh. I took the gestural sky in Starry Night to create whimsy in my backgrounds. I would still incorporate flowers and insects in some of the pieces, but I evolved into more scenic and seasonal designs. I would do a variety of flowers in a field during the summer, or a pumpkin patch or leaves in the wind during fall. I wanted to create scenes that don’t only captivate the eye, but to also have a calming essence to the user.
The designs that I create are probably what sets me apart from other ceramic artists. My work embodies a relief printmaking style, while still embodying bright colors and a sense of realism within. Every piece that is made is all freehand drawn, etched, and painted with just a variety of needle tools. I don’t sketch beforehand or use stencils so every piece is truly one of its own which makes each one special.
What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?
I have two things that I feel are the most rewarding. The first being that I graduated in 2019 and after that I started at a community studio to work out of. Building a home ceramic studio is a big investment. My dream was to be able to build this in my own home. I’ve worked incredibly hard, sometimes 75-80 hours a week during peak art fair season. Today, I work out of my home studio that I was able to build throughout the last couple years.
The second most rewarding aspect is when I hear the reaction at an art fair of someone seeing my work for the first time. I’ve heard so so so many people say that they’ve never seen anything like it before. It’s the reminder when I’m doubting the path I’m on that I’m doing something right and it resonates with people.
Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.
Staying consistently creative is hard and burnout is real even if it’s an enjoyable career. When this is a full time job, there’s a level of pressure associated with the creative roll. The pressure to make enough work to pay bills and to make sure that work resonates with my audience while still staying true to who I am. There’s pressure to stay relevent. I’ve made a living making an absurd amount of mugs and every time I branch out from mugs, I’m always worried that the new work won’t have as good of a response. With that creates a level of doubt. To be an artist requires a lot of confidence, determination, passion, and especially discipline. 9 months out of the year I average 60 hours a week to work. A lot of people would view artists as “lazy” because society views art as a hobby. I can’t tell you how many times people rolled their eyes, sighed, or said “that’s a nice hobby” when I transferred to pursue art. Little do most know how dedicated artists are when trying to make it.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.kit-pottery.com/
- Instagram: @keepingittogetherpottery
