We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Jaden Estes Carlson. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Jaden below.

Jaden, appreciate you joining us today. Have you been able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen? Was it like that from day one? If not, what were some of the major steps and milestones and do you think you could have sped up the process somehow knowing what you know now?

I’m not sure earning a full-time living from my creative work will ever be in the cards for me. When making, my happy place is definitely in the realm of conceptual sculpture (insert art meme here). I’ve tried to make functional ceramics for monetization, but it does take the enjoyment out of it for me. I have my K-12 Art Education degree and I really do see that as a great day job that can provide me a living in order for me to pursue my creative research nights, weekends, holiday breaks, and the summer. When I first got my education degree I felt like it wasn’t a right fit because I seemingly didn’t have the “passion” I was told I needed to be an important yet underpaid person in this workforce but the book “Work Won’t Love You Back” by Sara Jaffe really helped me get passed the idea that certain work should be done for passion not pay. I understand that is contradictory to my career as a ceramicist and pursuing that knowing I won’t get much monetary return, but at the end of the day, I do each of these things for different reasons. Balance in all things is the end goal.

Jaden, 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?

I was born and raised in small-town rural Nebraska and I went to the University of Nebraska-Kearney where I got my degree in K-12 Art Education. While I was there I had the extreme pleasure of having Mallory Wetherell as a ceramics professor. She was such a force in my life and opened my eyes to the world in a way I hadn’t known before college. I went on to apply for grad school and ended up going to Edinboro University in Pennsylvania to get my MFA in Ceramics.

When it comes to the content of my work, girlhood, and womanhood are always the central theme. I have three sisters who I love dearly and now three nieces. My work always comes back to them and all women and girls, my hopes and dreams for them, and the sadness of our seeming inescapable reality.

Throughout my current body of work, dolls are used to drive the narratives. Using the doll, hyper-feminine references, various colors, pattern(s), forms, textures, and imagery, Short Stories creates a visual diary showcasing narratives deriving from personal experiences, observations, and feminist literature such as the works by Gina Berriult, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, and Sandra Cisneros. These ideas come together in my sculptures, creating a story of feminine understanding.

Using terra cotta to construct the dolls instead of the traditional porcelain reframes the narrative that girls and women must be pure and untouched. Instead, it is a more accurate visual representation of the trials of a woman’s life. I utilize terra cotta clay for its rich mineral content to signify accumulation both physically and abstractly. When hand-building my pieces, I squeeze, pinch, and pull the clay performing pain-inflicting actions upon the media to create visibly tactile narratives symbolic of life.

“Kitschy” imagery, references to fibers, as well as domestic settings are used to underline my distaste for the extensive history of gender inequality and the disregard for the accomplishments of women and to confront the viewer’s reactions to art that embraces what is known as “women’s work.” Home is a recurring theme throughout this body of work to highlight the often parasitic relationship between women and their homes. It is a relationship that changes throughout a woman’s life and is nuanced with pain and pleasure. The illustrative elements in my work are sketchy and loose, showcasing the reality that women’s real-life selves are nothing more than a sketch, the debased iteration of something purer and more precious that society has demanded women to attempt to be.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative?

I think the funniest thing non-creatives struggle to understand about creative people and artists is that most of us are not inherently money motivated. I think for a lot of us we would be happy as long as our basic needs were met and we could do what we loved every day.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

I am so so grateful that I have a creative drive. It keeps my life full of passion and interest. I will always be able to find joy in art whether it is from making, viewing, or collecting. Making friends with fellow artists is also something that is extremely rewarding for me. Their hope turns into mine and I also can get joy and fulfillment from their journey and successes and can cheer them on. I’d say overall the most rewarding aspect of being an artist is the friends and people you meet along the way.

Contact Info:

• Website: jadenestescarlson.com
• Instagram: jadenestescarlson
• Facebook: Jaden Estes Carlson

Image Credits
Matt Kleck