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

Elisa, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. 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.

Upon entering my junior year of college, I was still undecided on a major. My advisor urged me to try journalism and enrolled me in a ceramics night class as an elective. After just a few weeks of that class, I knew that this was what I wanted to do! So, I changed my major and eventually earned a Bachelor of Arts in ceramics. My professor was a former production potter, so although I had no previous experience in ceramics, from him I learned a good foundation in the craftmanship of making in clay. I am very thankful for that, because at grad school I was able to rely on those foundational skills while exploring the artistic possibilities of clay. My professor at grad school told me “You have no style.” That was just one of many fairly brutal proclamations he made, but it was a good motivator to “find style,” and he was gifted at giving his students a little bit of direction and letting us find our way. I feel like he helped me go from being a pretty good potter into an artist that works in clay.

I will also say that an undergraduate class and a couple of workshops I have taken that focused on “the arts as business” have also been very helpful to me as a studio artist. I learned very quickly that the “making” part of being an artist is only one part of the job. Having knowledge about promotion, finances, networking and management, etc. is also so important.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Well, I have already told you that getting into ceramic art was sort of a happy accident. :-) I would like to say that part of my decision to become an artist was that it fit with my beliefs about raising a family. I was just a college student, but I knew that if I ever got married and started a family that I wanted to have an active role in raising my kids like my mother did. Making art seemed like something that I could do from home if/when I ever had a family. Most would say this line of thinking is old fashioned or not in tune with the real world, but I truly believe that parenting is the most important job on earth, and I have not regretted making it a priority even if it meant some sacrifices. I was still able to keep creating to a small extent from a home studio until our sons were in school. To me, attempting to raise good humans is the most important creative work I have done.

The ceramic work I have produced throughout my years as an artist has been affected by a few key things:

First, my upbringing in rural Kansas made me who I am, and I am certain that this translates into my work — the natural, rustic and textural qualities that my work has consistently possessed through the years can be traced back to the natural, rural environment that I was raised around and still live in and love. I don’t know how common it is for farm kids to go into the arts, but I do know that there were no other art students in undergrad or graduate school who had a background like mine, and I like that that makes me a little unique. I love that some of my work has evolved into making pieces that incorporate a ranch’s livestock brand — I feel like this is the perfect marriage of my passions!

My work has also been immensely affected by the stages of life that I have been through. The work I made fresh out of college, when I was single and then married with no kids, was complex, detailed, time-consuming work with a great deal of research and thought behind it. When children entered the picture, the small amount of work I did produce was simpler and more straight-forward simply because I had so much less time and energy. Now that our sons are teenagers, time is still precious, but I can usually find the time to do and make what needs to be done. However, there’s not a lot of time to just create freely and I still keep my job as mother and wife #1. Honestly, I daydream constantly about new series that I want to explore, and I think the next stage of life (empty nesting) will provide an artistic renaissance for me.

“Just make beautiful pots,” my graduate professor, would say. I hope the one constant through the years is that I have made good work. I believe that, since I make ceramic art and functional pottery, chances are my work is going into the home of whomever chooses it. I treasure “home” and believe art can enhance the environment we live in. I hope my pieces do that for the people who live amongst them.

Any resources you can share with us that might be helpful to other creatives?

Grants! It was only during Covid that I really became aware of this resource. I haven’t benefitted from it immensely, but I have received enough funding through grants to purchase new equipment that I wouldn’t have been able to afford otherwise. I have been told that there are so many grants “out there” that you just have to find the one that fits what you are needing.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

There are many! I can’t name just one! Some of the rewards of being an artist:
>Setting your own work schedule
>Making something out of nothing
>Adding beauty to the world / manifesting a bit of The Great Creator on earth through the creative process
>Bringing joy to others through my work
.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://elisastone.com
• Other: My studio on Main Street in Medicine Lodge has a gallery/gift shop on the main level. If you want to list it, the website is:
  http://www.makermercantile.com/
  facebook:
  https://www.facebook.com/makermercantile