We were lucky to catch up with PJ Hargraves recently and have shared our conversation below.

PJ, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Looking back on your career, have you ever worked with a great leader or boss? We’d love to hear about the experience and what you think made them such a great leader.

I have an amazing mentor named Eddie Dominguez. I first met Eddie as my professor when I got to graduate school at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Eddie was such a supportive faculty, always encouraging me even though I was making some wacky weird things. My favorite quote from Eddie during my grad years was, ” PJ, you’re not making good work now, but I am confident one day you will”. After earning my MFA degree I started working for Eddie as a studio assistant. Our relationship changed. We shed the formal aspects of the teacher, student relationship and became family. Eddie would make a home cooked meal with love pretty much every day we worked together. Over the two years I worked for Eddie he became my friend, brother, and I would argue second dad.
While working side by side I soaked up his stories about everything from working with galleries, public art projects and having museum exhibitions. The experience of working for him built onto my artist tool kit I assembled in graduate school and further prepared me for life as a professional artist.

PJ, 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 arrived in Ohio by way of Nebraska in 2022. As an artist and educator my time is divided between working and teaching, and being in the studio. Working at the University of Akron fuels my studio practice in a lot of ways. The university studio holds so many possibilities, both physically and metaphorically. That energy is hard to explain. Pretty much anytime I am not at work or tending my garden, I am at the studio. I always have several projects going at any given time so there is always something, or multiple things to work on. With ceramics, especially the larger sculptures I make, there is a lot of waiting for things to set up or dry before continuing to work on them. Sometimes a large sculpture may be in progress for a month or more.
My art practice right now has two main facets, sculpture and functional pottery. Both bodies of work exhibit the same themes of joy, positivity, nature and playfulness. My work is colorful and loud, almost dare I say gaudy, which I love. I have always made pottery since I fell in love with ceramics in college but only in the past few years do I feel like my pots have their own voice. Both the pots and sculptures often are emblazoned with birds and flowers, giving off vibes of cottage core or grandma chic. I grew up in in the Philadelphia area in Pennsylvania and recently I have been heavily inspired by Pennsylvania Dutch and Appalachian folk art. In some of my pieces you may notice references to quilts, lead glazed pottery and other American craft works.

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

For me the most rewarding thing about being an artist is having the ability to have complete control over what I make and what it is about. I am an NPR nerd so unfortunately I hear a lot of not so great stories on the news all the time. In graduate school I realized my studio practice is the only place in the world I have complete control over, so I want to dedicate my studio to all things joyful and positive. Not only is the studio a joyous place and joyful experience for me, but I hope the objects I make can exude that jay once they leave the studio.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

I love making art on a large scale. I think I just respond to using my whole body in the process of making something. Currently, I am not making anything of particularly large scale but it has always been a goal of mine to start working in the public art realm. Public art or community lead pieces seem like a natural progression for my work that has thus far lacked that level of engagement. My work is all about joy, so that seems like it needs to be shared as much as possible. Right? In Nebraska I was part of a cool group of artist and thinkers that were doing some really rad things in Lincoln; combining art and community gardening and music and healthy living. I would like to get involved in something like that here in northeast Ohio.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.pjhargraves.com/
• Instagram: @patgraves