We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Sara Ballek a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Sara, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. I’m sure there have been days where the challenges of being an artist or creative force you to think about what it would be like to just have a regular job. When’s the last time you felt that way? Did you have any insights from the experience?

I could say with certainty that I am happy as an artist, but I can honestly admit that I have pondered the idea of what it would be like to work a regular job. A job with set hours, that I coud clock in and out of and have a regular paycheck, knowing just how much it would be for each time, and benefits as well. I think as humans, we can easily fall into “the grass is always greener” mentality from time to time, but the reality is that things are not always as they appear to be. It’s important for me to remember that I am living a life that feels true to who I am, and that I am making an effort towards something that deserves a chance. I am glad I gave my creative career a chance earlier on in my adult life, than waiting far into the future. While it hasn’t always been easy, I wanted to know if I could make it work now rather than wait and maybe not be able to depending on unforeseen circumstances. The jump has to come at some point to begin the journey. It’s been a steady balance of challenges and rewards. I have been humbled over and over in this endeavor, but I have also become more confident in myself in ways I didn’t imagine I would.

I have had some remarkable experiences and opportunities that have occured because of choosing this creative career path. Each time I am met with those significant moments, the positive interactions and healing that happens with clay, it affirms that I made the right decision for myself.

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?

I was born and raised in the Northwest suburbs of Chicago, Illinois along with my two, wonderful brothers. My parents are both the first in my family lineage (on both sides) that were born in America. I was very fortunate to grow up having a very close relationship with all four of my grandparents along with a tight knit group of cousins, aunts and uncles on both sides of my family. It truly felt as if I was being raised in a village. Having those close, multi-generational, familial relationships play a part in my day to day, positively impacted and influenced much of my life and my path as a creative and small business owner. Spending many days of my youth in the homes of my grandparents and older relatives, I felt as if I were exploring a time capsule or as if I were getting a front row seat to what it would have been like to grow up in the decades before me. My grandfathers, both coming from Europe, worked very hard to eventually establish their own small businesses after years of working in factories and learning all they could about manufacturing. My dad followed in his father’s footsteps, and became a small business owner himself. From early on, it registered to me that I could one day run my own small business. While my small, creative business looks much different than what my grandfathers and fathers did, their stories became a catalyst for my own.

I was enamored by the old stories told to me, as I would sit beside my grandmother on a velvet, floral print couch that sat on top of orange carpeting. There were old photos that paired with these stories to provide more exact visuals than just my imagination. It’s as if I could ride that floral, velvet couch even further back into time, through one of those photos, like a portal into the past. I wanted to know what it would have been like to be a young girl along with my grandmothers when they were young. Of course hoping we would be close friends if time would allow such a thing. I loved seeing the outfits they wore (especially in the 60’s and 70’s), and the rooms they would be situated in. What the furniture looked like, the groovy wallpaper in the background, and all the interesting household items filling the space around it all. I developed an early love for the colors, shapes, patterns and textures that were prominent in those decades.

Creativity was always encouraged and supported throughout my life. Whether it was digging for miscellaneous items to make something from the giant craft bin my mom always kept stocked, or learning to sew with my grandmother, or build something with my grandfather, or write and illustrate my own short stories, I was always tangled in some creative endeavor. I knew from early on that I wanted to spend my life always making art, and that I someday wanted to have it be the focus of my future career. I went on to attend college at Southern Illinois University, in Carbondale, Illinois. Originally, I started out pursuing a degree in Art Education, but after two years I made the decision to get my Bachelors of Fine Arts in Ceramics. I never imagined that ceramics would be the medium I would chose to hone in on, but it didn’t take much for me to learn just how much there was to learn in this form of art alone. Not only is clay a vehicle in creating art, but it is also a lot of science, it involves a lot of math and requires a lot of reading and writing, especially when pursuing an education and career in the craft. The multitude of subjects required to understand when learning about making art with clay, was what captivated me and made me want to continue to learn more about it from all angles.

After graduating with my BFA in Ceramics in 2016, I moved to Asheville, North Carolina. I knew Asheville was a hub for artists, and had an abundant clay scene with a lot of opportunities to continue learning and plenty of studio spaces to be able to make work in. After several years of working as full time nanny upon moving here, and nearly working full time in the studio parallel to my five day work week, I made the decision to pivot and go full time with my ceramics career. This summer marks my 8th year of teaching pottery, and this fall will be 6 years of making my work full time.

I have taught a large variety of classes at Odyssey ClayWorks, which is the local ceramics studio that I first started working out of when I first moved to Asheville. Odyssey offers a wide variety of classes and also provides a lot of outreach programs within the community. I have had the opportunity to work closely with the kids summer camp program and after school classes, teach adult adult clay classes, lead clay classes for recovery groups, work with adults with intellectual or developmental disabilities, and I have also become closely involved in helping run the Veterans clay program. I have been so fortunate to be able to grow the teaching portion of my career in so many directions out of just Odyssey alone. Teaching there has connected me with a lot of different people who have further provided and helped bridge other connections with studios all over. I have been fortunate to travel to other studios around the country to teach workshops, as well as online workshops through different studios and organizations. Teaching has provided an avenue for me to share my love for clay and has truly shown me the magic that can happen when connecting with others through clay and conversation. I have witnessed countless, profound, positive changes clay has made in many lives around me, including my own, While I may be a teacher in this craft, I will forever be a student.

When I am not teaching, I can be found making my own work in my studio space. While I do teach a bit, it is more of a part time component in my ceramics career, where making my work is the majority of how my working days are spent. I make functional pottery that focuses largely on surface design. I enjoy playing with various color schemes, and creating variations of the same few stylized patterns with signature shapes on all kinds of forms. My work is largely influenced by the colors and patterns of the decades before me. The decades I heard so much about, from the loved ones who lived in them, and took me back in time with them in their stories. The retro style, mid-century influence is evident through the textural, colorful, pattern-filled pieces I create. I like to think of each piece I make as a room, as if I am an interior designer or a painter and the clay is my canvas. Laying out the compositions and coming up with the color choices for each piece feels as if I am creating a space, to be lived in, to be used often, to represent a specific time or memory, or make someone think of a loved one.

It is truly a gift to be able to make and sell my artwork. It has connected me with so many wonderful folks from all over the world in ways I could have never imagined it would. My hope is that my pieces will spark conversations in the homes they live in and that they will bring up fond memories of a special place or a loved one. I hope this happens each time someone eats off of a plate, drinks from a mug, or puts flowers in a vase.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

I think one of the most rewarding aspects about being an artist is that you have the ability to create a physical object from a thought, an idea, a vision, a dream, an experience, a memory, etc. When I am taking a design I’ve dreamt up in my mind and then am able to figure out how to turn it into a tangible object that represents my idea(s), it fills me to the brim with excitement. Each piece holds so much within. All the intention put into the making process, the careful decisions of the design of the form and surface, what inspired me in the first place, the years of practice and educating myself, all the trial and error, and all of the successes as well. Knowing that each piece will find it’s way into the world, into the hands and home of someone who will use it, possibly and hopefully in their daily rituals, brings me so much joy. I think art is one of the most valuable links that brings people together. People find connection with others through art. I know that statement stands true in my own experiences, and how much value is added to my life through the art made by other creatives. Art will always provide various avenues for us to explore and also to express ourselves.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

Burnout is not the key to success. This is still a lesson I continue to work through. I can confidently admit that I have made some progress over the years, but I occasionally find myself deep into the long days and late nights, sometimes for consecutive months. This really becomes apparent each year as the holiday season unfolds.

When I was in college, I quickly fell in love with working with clay. The ceramics studio became a place for endless opportunities, a place that I could explore all of the ideas brewing about in my brain, along with 24 hour access. It wasn’t long before I achieved the title that many artists refer to as a “studio rat”. I wanted to be there day in and day out, for as many hours as I could find in the day. After I graduated and moved to Asheville, North Carolina, I quickly found my way into a local studio where I again had 24 hour access and everything I need to continue making work. It was a goal of mine to eventually become a full time artist. I had a goal of being able to sell my work and to teach pottery classes to earn a living, but in the meantime, I needed to secure a full time job to support myself in this new move and next chapter. I quickly got a job as a full time nanny, caring for two small children, five days a week. When I would get off of my 8 hour days of nannying, I would head straight to the studio, eat my dinner there and get right to work. I knew if I wanted to make my dreams a reality, I would have to put the time in. I kept this routine up for two and a half years. I was basically working around the clock, six to seven days a week. It was the equivalent to working two full time jobs, while in a relationship, having pets, making new friends, etc. It became A LOT. Too much, really. Other areas of my life were not being tended to because I constantly put the pressure on myself to fill each day to the max with work. I was living and functioning in a constant state of burnout. It was not sustainable and I really needed to make some necessary shifts sooner than later.

After two and a half years of building upon my art practice and beginning to sell my work on a more regular basis, along with beginning to teach, I made the decision to leave my job as a full time nanny. I felt that it was time to try and give my creative career my all, before too late. While leaving my nanny job opened up a lot of extra time for the studio, it didn’t necessarily mean that I was working much less or living a more balanced lifestyle. Instead, I put a lot of extra pressure on myself to constantly be in the studio and making as much work as I possibly could. My will to push this hard and devotion to clay was not solely based on my love for the craft, but it was also driven by the fear of failure. I figured if I was always trying, I wouldn’t fall behind or risk failing at this new endeavor, that was both equally exciting and mildly terrifying.

I was also a staff member of the studio I was making work at during the time I nannied and the for first several years I I went full time. I had my own studio space within the larger studio to work from, and the option to teach classes from there, 8 weeks at a time. As an artist in residence at this studio, I had to work 8 hour shifts a week in trade for my studio space. While I wasn’t paying rent, I still had to work in order to make my work. After several years of making it full time as a self employed artist out of this space, I started to consider what it would be like to have nearly 40 hours back each month to put into my studio time and pay rent somewhere, rather than a work trade system.

Little by little, I was making moves to to open up time for solely for my business. As I was making these transitions, my work was becoming more refined and appreciating value. My price points grew quite a bit, so I didn’t need to sell as many pieces to make the same amount of money, and I could begin to expand in other areas of my art practice by having some extra time to invest. I began to take a day, maybe even two off, and started to get back in touch with other things in my life that I didn’t always leave enough time for previously. My life began to round out a bit more as time went on. I felt more rested, more focused, and also noticed that I wasn’t falling behind by taking necessary time away from the studio each day, and days off each week. The days that I am there, I am far more productive and precise in my work rather than if I were working in a constant state of burnout.

While my head is always filling with new ideas that I want to attempt in the studio, and the to-do list is never ending, I have learned to give myself permission and encouragement to take time away and take better care of myself. After all, I need to take care of my mind and body, as they are the most important tools when it comes to making my art.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://saraballek.com
• Instagram: @saraballek_ceramics

Image Credits

All images of my work are taken by me.