We recently connected with Randie Silverstein and have shared our conversation below.
Randie, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Can you talk to us about how you learned to do what you do?
I learned to do art in general by taking classes as a young girl at Dewitt Clinton High School on Saturday mornings while i was growing up in the Bronx, in NYC. I took oil painting lessons. When we moved out of the city in my teen years, I studied pottery and jewlery at Rockland Center for the Arts and in fact my first job was assisting a printmaker there, helping her prepare her metal plates. I wanted to go to art school, but i could only afford a state college. But the one I chose, SUNY New Paltz, turned out to have a wonderful art department and I graduated with a BFA in Ceramics. When I graduated college I moved to Seattle to escape New York, and while job hunting answered an ad in the newspaper. (remember those?)
Loren Lukens, Potter had put an ad in the newspaper looking for an assistant through the holidays. Five years later I tearfully left his employ and headed south for california, where I now reside in Santa Cruz County. Those five years were worth so much ore than my five years in college. I learned everything I needed to know about being an artist, from taking the time to design a new line of work, to keeping the books. From mixing glazes to packing and shipping to galleries. From jurying into shows and fulfilling orders to greeting clients. It was in many ways a paid apprenticeship. He saw in me a skilled artist who he could entrust his standard of artmaking, and he took on a mentor role very patiently and gracefully. Accepting my youth and the flaws that come with that– we became lifelong friends. In terms of speeding up the learning process,,, in some ways I feel that it takes time to get good at anything. and in order to get good at it you need to do it. So I’m really happy with the path of my career and I wouldn’t change anything about it. Now my knowledge of ceramics really informs my understanding of glass, and has given me a head start when approaching the material.
That leads into what skills i think were most essential.. I think the ability to pivot, to be flexible, to find solutions many ways– plus a healthy curious nature, of the material you’re working with, is essential. Art comes with a million challenges.. problems to solve, techniques to create. The ability to be challenged by those obstacles and not thwarted by them is probably the most essential skill to have. It is how to grow as an artist. The obstacles that now stand in my way to learning more is technology. Its the immense amount of knowledge one would have to have to create the things that I think about creating. My husband put it brilliantly the other day. He said he really sees how I’m bumping up against stuff I don’t know all over my life. How I’m being challenged at every turn by technology I don’t know or things I don’t understand the foundation of like electricity. But my ethic keeps me pushing up against that because it’s there that really interests me. For many years money stood in the way of me learning more. I wanted to go to graduate school but I never had the funding for it. I am a person who learns by doing. It’s how I came to glass. And i’ve been doing it ever since.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I had moved to Denver with my fiance and we were married back in 2004. We had moved there to be close to his sons who were still kids and they lived in the suburbs. we bought a home closeby, and lived a suburban life. I didn’t know many people and especially no artists. So i started taking a class at the local Community college–Arapahoe Community College. Kathryn Holt was head of the ceramics department there, and led a small class on fusing glass to a few advanced students. Three years later I looked up and realized i was hooked for life. I found myself searching for and finding a voice in glass… realizing I needed to sell my clay studio and purchase a glass kiln which I did upon returning to California with my husband just before he retired. And it ‘s not really like I knew what I was doing, i just continued to do it and before you knew it a decade has passed. The products I provide have changed through the years. I’m currently very interested in making installation art, and currently I’ve been experimenting with led lighting and whimsical ways to hang it. I love solving problems, so making a piece for a particular space is exciting to me. If i listen hard enough both the space and the glass have a part in speaking to me. Telling me what it needs, what kind of space it is going to be and the vibe it’s going to have.
What i’m most proud of is an installation I recently completed for the Community Foundation of San Benito County in Hollister, California in winter of 2022. They built a gorgeous building, with beautiful materials and design, and I was asked to make a “quiet” piece for the lobby. I created an 11 disc 8’ long wall sculpture that represented the horizon, where the earth meets the sky. I named it “Dawn’s Early Light”. It represented to me, the human potential and the hope of a new day. it was conceived of and presented, accepted and then competed all on schedule. within budget, and has been overwhelmingly loved by staff and visitors alike from what i have been told! This pleases me more than anything. to create a piece of art that brings a sense of belonging and calm to the viewers was what i was tasked with and it brings me joy to know this is my contribution to a better world.
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
I can recall a time in my life when we struggled financially. We lived in the city, in Seattle, and we didn’t have a car.. rode our bikes everywhere. I was in my 20’s. I also didn’t have a studio of my own and i was working in a friends basement who had a kiln and let me fire there. I was part of a group called the Washington Potters Association and they were having a group show at the Northwest Craft Center byt the space needle in seattle. I hadn’t been in a show since my senior show when I graduated college.
It’s a classic story of how do you get where you want to go without the tools you need to get there? Well I finished the pots i wanted to put into the show but i’d have to take them on the bus to the craft center. It took me two trips downtown with a giant piece of sculptural pottery in my arms (too big for a box)! I fondly think of those days. I sold one at the show and the craft center asked if they could show the other one, so ironically it’s really how i came to be shown in a gallery! I showed there for many years early in my career. Times like those, they illustrated my resilience– a car and a kiln would have made life easier but i wasn’t ready to put my career in art on hold until i obtained those things. Like i’m known for saying… you gotta really want it.
Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?
Yes, so I was managing for a local paint your own ceramic place. you know one of those like paint me mine that popped up in every town, where you could go pick a piece of bisqueware off a shelf and “paint” it with glazes provided. you come back the next day after its fired and pick up. great for kid parties. Well i was running the manufacturing and distribution warehouse when hte company experienced having grown too quickly. So they let a few people go and i was one of them. When I applied for unemployment I was told I was eligible for a fast track to work program through the local community college here in santa cruz in the late 90’s. I took advantage of this to go back to school and learn graphic design. I went, did well, fell in love with web design and took that up professionally for the next 20 years as a side hustle. Talk about one thing leading to another. It was the best thing to happen to me, and because I took the challenge to return to school, i benefited immensely.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.randiesilverstein.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/randiesilversteinglass/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/randiesilversteinglass/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/luckydogarts/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@randiesilverstein1098
Image Credits
Randie Silverstein, Paul Schraub, Michael Baba