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

Alright, Kala thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Do you think your parents have had a meaningful impact on you and your journey?

My parents were back-to-the-landers and part of the counter-culture movement. Their lives and work were one in the same- homesteading and building a self-sustainable lifestyle. Growing up with this pragmatism and idealism taught me how to grow and preserve food, carpentry, animal husbandry and live close to the land, according to seasonal rythms. This upbringing gave me work ethic and a deep spiritual connection to the natural world. To this day, it informs my work and how I choose to live in the world as a creative person.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I began working in clay when I was in college studying graphic design. The clay studio had the tactile quality that I missed from my childhood and was about being industrious in order to make work and solve problems that always arise from the technical side of ceramics. For me, graphic design did not provide the social or tactile outlet I was craving, so I changed to a ceramics major.

It’s the material and technical side of ceramics that keeps me engaged and experimenting after all of these years. My range in the medium is vast so I am able to offer my clients and designers solutions to make their ideas come to fruition. This is something that sets me apart from most artists- that I also work as a fabricator and designer – offering endless colors, clays, and surfaces.

My work incorporates environmental themes that illustrate the fragility, power, and impermanence of the natural world. Referencing scientific imagery, data, and my personal experiences, I interpret the forces of nature through ceramic sculpture and wall installations. The medium of ceramics is a way to preserve information through the forming and firing process. I consider firing clay as an act of fossilization, creating a permanent record, perhaps an artifact or a memorial, of the ephemeral and the ethereal. Through these artifacts, I explore how we experience and relate to our environment and the climate crisis. By working at the intersection of art, design, craft, history, technology, and environmentalism, I hope that my work reflects the present, is an homage to our past, and expresses optimism for our future.

My next aspiration is to scale up my work for more public venues such as airports and other high-volume venues as I feel that bringing ceramics into the built environment has a way of bringing elements of nature and feelings of serenity and groundedness.

I’ve been working in clay for nearly 25 years now. The ceramics field has provided me with rich opportunities, an array of jobs, travel opportunities, and a great community of makers to be in conversation/collaboration with. Most recently I became a member of the International Academy of Ceramics and attended an international clay conference in Portugal where I also had the opportunity to show my work and meet makers and ceramics scholars from around the world. I spent a month living and working in Denmark at the Guldagergaard International Ceramic Research Center and taught at La Meridiana International School of Ceramics multiple times.

In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?

Most directly, society can support artists by supporting them financially- buying their work or giving them opportunities to sell their work through exposure, shows, etc.

Are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

I wish I had invested in or had been exposed to entrepreneurial resources/training in my academic programs. I was able to apprentice with two potters and learned valuable lessons during the two years of observation and shadowing. This greatly informed my business model and approach to being an artist and educator, but I’ve only learned the hard skills as I’ve navigated my own path. Most artists are solo-preneurs if they are making and selling their work, so business training is essential.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://kalastein.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kalasteindesign/?hl=en

Image Credits

Kelly Brothers
Steven Krause