We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Sebastian Schiff. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Sebastian below.
Sebastian, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today How did you learn to do what you do? Knowing what you know now, what could you have done to speed up your learning process? What skills do you think were most essential? What obstacles stood in the way of learning more?
I was educated at the University of Youtube, or at least that what I like to tell people. In other words, I am self taught, so a lot of my knowledge comes from intuition, trial and error, and youtube when I want to learn a specific skill or process. The first time I made something out of clay was in my freshman year of highschool. I made a pinch pot, a teapot, and an animal sculpture, and then I would not touch clay for another six years after that. In 2018 I found clay at a time when I was not looking to begin an art career, but more so looking to find peace and stay out of trouble. Not having a teacher, I became my own and began exploring with air dry clay. A big part of my learning process was learning to build and fire my woodfire kiln which allowed me to fire my own work, and learn at my own pace. In 2020 I learned to build a kiln by studying the kilns used by the amazing artisans in two Mexican towns who’s art I adore, called Amatenango Del Valle, and Los Reyes de Metzontla. Using free bricks from craigslist and stones from my backyard, I built a five-foot-tall woodfire kiln that could fire up to 2300 degrees. In 2022 as I was finishing up my bachelors (sociology) at Cal state East Bay, I took a beginner ceramics classes to fulfill my credits requirement, and mainly so I could have access to their larger kilns. I was taught by the awesome Professor Jennifer Brazelton, and learned how to build larger forms, build sculptures using an armature, mix glazes, and took advantage of some fun prompts to begin exploring more of my own expression, and adding more meaning behind my work rather than just technical exploration.
Shoot, what would I have done differently to speed up my learning process? My first thought was go to art school. As a self taught artist, often learning the hard way, by trial and error, I often wonder how much different my experience would have been, having earlier access to the knowledge, materials, and facilities. This being said, I still wouldn’t change the way that I learned and developed my skill set. I feel like I explored ceramics in a way that was so authentic to me, and allowed me to maintain my identity in my practice. Once thing about ceramics, is there are many ways to get to the same goal. Whether its wheel throwing, mug making, kiln building, the tools I use, I’ve noticed that the way that I do things, is not in accordance to the teaching standard, but it still works. I think being self taught also leads to a lot of “Aha” moments, when trying new techniques and troubleshooting, which can be very rewarding. Having my DIY woodfire kiln also allowed me to learn at my own pace, which was fast, especially during the pandemic times, all I was doing was clay. During that time I was giving myself my own homework assignments, like “Make ___ pieces using ___ Technique” and then I would sell those pieces at local art markets to pay my rent during the pandemic. This gave me a very mutually beneficial and motivating way to explore new techniques and get practice making ceramics. I would be firing the kiln multiple times per week for months at a time. I think one thing that can still do to speed up my learning would be apply to more residencies so I can explore the medium with access to better kilns, glazes, and studio space.
Throughout this journey with clay, certain skills have been put to use, and others developed along the way. Beginning working in ceramics on self taught path, I was very curios which felt like a skill at times, because I had to push myself to be even more curious. I love designing and making functional items, and I had to be curious about how I can push the design, functionality, and the process further. In this quest, the motto is trial and error, not trial and success, so in this process it requires a lot of resilience, determination, faith, and patience. More tangibly speaking, learning to throw on the pottery wheel was a great skill to develop speed up the process of making my pots. It was also essential to have ingenuity and a DIY spirit, as I learned how to build a kiln and fire it on my own.
The biggest obstacle in the way of learning more has definitely been the barrier to entry in the world of art, and specifically ceramics arts. I taught myself because I didn’t have an art teacher or the luxury of art school. I built my own kiln because I couldn’t afford a membership to a ceramics studio. And even now it can be harder to get residencies, teaching opportunities, gallery recognition, without the art degree on your resume, and the networking that comes wit it. Ceramics is an expensive craft if you’re getting into it on your own, from the pottery wheel, tools, kiln, clay, glazes, and studio space, and knowledge. This has fueled my desire to work to make ceramics and the therapeutic aspects of it more accessible to folks.
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?
My name is Sebastian Montes-Schiff, I am a German-Mexican-American artist working in Ceramics. I was born and raised in Los Angeles, particularly a part called El Sereno, and I am a proud self taught artist, working in clay for the past six years. My art is at the intersection of form and function as I love to design and create objects that double as art and have a unique functional aspect to them as well. Within my art you will recognize themes relating to personal growth and experience, personification of nature, ancestral adorning, community, sexuality, and playful humor.
In my studio practice I love to make things that I wish already existed in the world. Being a Taurus born on 4/20, naturally I make a lot of art that you can indulge your multiple senses in. My signature Smokeable Plant Pots allow you to smoke pot out of your pot. Sounds weird, I know, you just have to see it though! Aside from my abstract inventions, I also enjoy working in traditional Mexican/Indigenous pottery techniques and styles, and designing plant pots, mugs, bowls, lamps, incense holders, fog machines, and other housewares out of ceramics.
I am also a teacher and love to share my passion for ceramics with others and help people discover the therapeutic and enriching aspects of ceramics. Through ceramics we can deepen our relationship with ourselves, but also with mother earth as we play with the clay and shape it.
Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?
At the base level, I make art because I think its fun of course, but it is also part of my therapeutic routine. I get an intrinsic satisfaction from having an idea and seeing it come to fruition. To be able to express one’s self in such a medium like clay can be so therapeutic. The tactile and sensory feeling of the clay, and the attention and focus it demands can make is so easy to get happily lost in the process. I live with anxiety, depression, and adhd, and clay seems to be one thing that acts as a medicine to me. All while serving as a meditative practice the grows one closer to themselves, it also is an opportunity to grow close with the earth we live on. The earth itself cant actively cultivate a relationship with us, but we can do so from our end by playing with the clay, massaging it, playing with, and shaping it. In my spiritual practice, and my ceramics practice, I give thanks to the earth for all it provides for us, and for every bit of clay that I use.
On a deeper level, I think about legacy, history, and anthropology a lot. I wonder what will happen after I am no longer walking on this earth. How will I be remembered? I meditate on people in my life who have passed on. Some people leave a legacy. My abuelita, when she passed, she left her legacy in plants, through her garden. Its where I get my love, appreciation, and respect for plants from, and i still get to enjoy it in her memory today. I wonder when I’m gone, what will be my legacy. Like every ceramicist who signs their pieces on the bottom with the year, we anticipate that our art pieces could outlive us, that our life and existence may be extended. I think I have a fear of being forgotten, and a fascination with being remembered. I want to leave an imprint on this world, not just in what I leave behind, but in the world of ceramics, I want to create my own groove, and one that others can follow in as well. To invent and share something with the world.
But at the end of the day, the thing that fuels me the absolute most, is seeing someone, smile, laugh, or expereince soemthin when they see my art.
What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?
Freedom. Not in a patriotic way, but in a spiritual way. Capitalism will dull the world if we let it, and we must resist creatively.
Back in high school English class we had a journal prompt that was “Personify your worst fear”. I wrote about a guy who basically works in a 9-5 cubicle, doing the same thing every morning, day, and night, blind to the monotonous routine. That would be the end of me. If you are reading this and you work a 9-5 or in a cubicle, there is no shade to you! In fact I have done both in recent years. Personally it doesn’t work for me, I felt miserable and as if I’m not living when I did. What we do for work, is what we spend the vat majority of our waking hours doing, and ultimately our experience on earth. So for me, it is most rewarding to be able to love what you do everyday, and to have some freedom in what we do and how much of it. I still work a day job (I’m a behavioral therapist), and make art when I’m not working. My ultimate goal is to be able to be a full time artist/teacher and make a sustainable living for myself. So to be able to achieve that will be my ultimate reward. I think when I accomplish that, I’ll finally be able to say I made it!!!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://flourpots.art
- Instagram: @fl.our.pots
- Youtube: Flourpots
Image Credits
Vanessa Vigil @vavimami