We recently connected with Elliott Kayser and have shared our conversation below.
Elliott, appreciate you joining us today. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?
In 2018 I was approached by Lucas Cowan, the former Public Art Curator for the Rose Kennedy Greenway Conservancy in downtown Boston, MA. He invited me to participate in the parks ongoing Chinatown arts project, where each year they invite an artist to create an animal sculpture to celebrate the upcoming Chinese new year. Up until this project, I had never had the opportunity to make ceramic work for public spaces. The challenge of designing ceramic sculptures that could withstand the elements, unsupervised public interaction, and be large enough to hold their own in an outdoor arena was intimidating, especially since I only had 4 months from initial concept to installation. At the time I was an artist in residence at the Mesa Arts Center in Mesa, AZ; 2600 miles away from Boston! Today it seems nearly impossible to imagine how I produced ten 350 lb pig sculptures in 4 months; but I know it only happened because I had an incredibly supportive boss at the art center, a small but industrious group of studio assistants, and a well organized arts team at the Greenway. It is this project that taught me the skills to be a production manager, which I later applied to jobs working in ceramic industry. I hope to create more public arts projects in the future, but until then, the experience gained from this project is helping me stay organized, work smart and continue to pursue life as a full-time studio artist.
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?
My name is Elliott Kayser, and I am a ceramic sculptor and production consultant living in Ypsilanti, MI. I began working with clay as a kid, and quickly fell in love with the medium. I received both my BFA and MFA in ceramic art, and professionally I have spent 7+ years working in the ceramic industry. My family comes from a long line of engineers, so the technical challenges in manufacturing have always interested me. It is those technical skills that have motivated me to come up with increasingly complex builds, large scale works and finely detailed renderings of animals. That said, it is not the technical challenge of working in clay that is at the heart of my studio practice, but rather my thoughts and feelings about building relationships. The driving throughline of my career is the value of connection and relationships. As production manager, I enjoyed the camaraderie of working as a team towards a common goal in a production environment. In my art practice, I bring mindfulness about how we interact with our land, resources and community.
Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?
When the Covid pandemic began, I was working as a full-time artist out of the Mesa Arts Center, which was a community studio. The studio closed, I had a 6 month old baby, and we had a couple of deaths in the family in quick succession. It was unclear what the landscape for exhibiting work would look like in terms of galleries and museums, but the solo exhibition I had been preparing for was cancelled. My family and I went to stay with my inlaws for 5 months waiting to see if our positions at the Mesa Art Center would be reinstated. I had the sense it was going to take a while before people would be gathering for art shows. I reached out to my contacts for anyone that had a lead on production ceramics, which I had done previously before graduate school. I got offered the Production Manager Position at Sarah Kersten Studios, in Oakland, CA. At that time, I was really grateful to have structured, meaningful tasks that engaged my intellect, but didn’t require the big emotional investment that being an entrepreneur does. It was a work environment with a friendly and hardworking team and a CEO that really embraced innovation and change to make high quality ceramics. After a couple of years, we had our feet back under us, and I felt ready to return to being a full time artist.
Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?
Part of my journey to becoming a full time artist was through the university system. Most residency and teaching opportunities require an MFA, which I received in 2017. In my experience, the dedicated time to making work in a master’s program is really valuable for refining technique and concept. But, once I graduated, I felt I needed to unlearn the metrics for what success looks like. The ability to have a healthy work/life balance is essential to having longevity and joy in your work. I think that both the university system and social media ask artists to mine their traumas and personal stories to create content, and to always question if you’re doing enough. One of the silver linings of having to relocate and step into production was that it gave me a few years to reset and gain a professional, but not academic, approach to making art.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.kayserceramics.com
- Instagram: @kayserceramics
- Facebook: kayser ceramics
Image Credits
‘20161117grant_kayser02’ – Deanna Dent ‘IMG_1102’ – Peter Bugg All other images – Artist