Studio Visit & Interview with Jas Spitzer-Smith
By John Vochatzer
One of my favorite things about doing studio visits and interviews has not only been getting the opportunity to catch up with artist friends of mine, but also to reflect on and appreciate some of those friendships through writing. Jas Spitzer-Smith, perhaps better known by their Instagram handle @asheceramics, is no exception to this as they are someone I have been ceaselessly impressed with and am incredibly proud to know. Having had met them almost 5 years ago, when they were a 21-year-old kid who had just moved here from Fort Lauderdale, I can say that even then they were someone I looked up to in many ways even though they are over a decade younger than me.
Working in the same downtown studio the entire time I’ve known them, Jas’ work has been on a continuous trajectory of growth and exploration that has been amazing to witness. Their ceramic practice to them is much, much more than a craft, but rather an intricate means of exploring their own self, their spirituality, and their West African heritage. Aside from their ongoing dedication to their art, I think one thing that has always struck me most about Jas is their strong sense of personal identity, which is not only prevalent in the stylistic consistency of their work but also in who they are as an individual.
As was the case with many, a lot of friendships and relationships of mine changed over the course of the events of the past couple years. Some for the better, and some for the worse. I haven’t spent as much time keeping up with Jas and their work as I’d like to, but regardless I always consider theirs a friendship dear to me. On that note, it was great checking out their new upgraded station at their studio, seeing what they’ve been working on, and hearing about what’s up next. Keep killin’ it Jas!!!
Interview
Hey Jas! Thanks for letting me come check out what you've been working on lately and catching up. For those who don't know you, can you tell us a little bit about yourself, about what you do, and about how you got into ceramics as your medium of choice?
Hey Johnny, I appreciate you coming through and checking up on me! It’s been a minute since we caught up and I have so many things in the works. To start off a bit about myself, as you know, I was born and raised in Florida. Fort Lauderdale more specifically, with ties to Jamaica from my dad's side of the family. I've always been connected to art and grew up surrounding myself with it throughout my life.
I’m currently living and working out of my studio in San Francisco. I create ceramic sculptures centered around my spirituality and give honor to deities and spirits originating from West Africa, Caribbean, and Black communities. I also create functional pieces used in spiritual practice such as incense burners, offering bowls, planters, and pots.
In high school I thought I was going to become a fashion designer. I even checked out colleges in New York my senior year. I was ready to leave home and jump into the fashion world but ultimately I decided that wasn’t a medium I wanted to pursue. What drew me to fashion was sewing and constructing fabrics into 3D forms. I loved visually building objects and was drawn to problem solving challenges. But once I began to seriously consider working in that field I realized I wasn’t suited for the fashion industry. It felt very competitive and fast paced and my personality clashed with the environment.
After coming to certain realizations, I decided to stay in Florida after high school. I was a bit lost, not sure what art form I was more drawn to, but knew I wanted to pursue some form of sculpture to work with my hands. I ended up going to community college in the meantime and decided to take a ceramics class. I fell in love from there and have been doing it ever since!
I’ve seen you refer to your work as “West African diaspora” inspired ceramics, and that you're "reconnecting to your ancestral roots through art." Can you tell us about this aspect of what you do? How does your identity tie into your work?
When I began creating ceramics I wanted to set an intention for my work. I didn’t want to just make art just to make it. I really enjoy symbolism and imagery and wanted to use that in my work to express a part of me. I realized as I started to get more involved in ceramics that I felt a lack of identity within myself, my purpose, and a lack of really knowing my history and where I come from. And that is a common feeling amongst the Black community. The feeling of a history lost and taken away from us because of colonization.
Once I came to that realization I became extremely inspired to research and gain knowledge from the Motherland of my people, West Africa. I wanted to tap into my ancestral roots and learn about my lineage to honor that part of my culture and to explore my own identity.
I’ve known you going on 5 years now, and one thing I've always admired about you is how motivated and hardworking you are when it comes to your craft. What keeps you so determined and inspired day after day?
Damn, Johnny, thank you! I appreciate the compliment; real recognize real. To be honest, I just wanna make art. Everything I do in my life sets me up so that I can make art. It’s the thing I'm most passionate about in my life. I'm happiest when I'm thinking about art, talking about it, and creating it. Art has always been a way to ground myself. I don't even think I'd be alive on this earth right now without it.
How has moving to the Bay Area affected your growth as a creator? Do you think that who you would be as an artist would be much different if you had never moved here?
Man, moving to the Bay keeps me hustling. As much as I love art and it's my passion, I don't think I would be working as hard as I do If I had stayed back home. I moved to the Bay with the intention to grow my art practice, build community and create the life I wanted for myself. I kinda had a fire under my ass when I first moved here because I wanted to prove to myself that I could accomplish the goals that I set. And I'm proud to say that I have done that and continue to do that.
The past few years have been very transformative for a lot of people, especially artists. Do you feel like your creative output or perspectives on what you do have changed significantly since the start of the pandemic? Have the events of the past 2 years impacted your art?
Like most people, I was really thrown off at the beginning of the pandemic. I was pretty much in the studio every day, working on projects, selling work and teaching classes - which was my main form of income at the time. And I would be going hard too, like pulling all nighters, spending 12 hours a day with very few breaks. Because that's what I felt I needed to do. But once lockdown hit, a lot of classes and projects came to a halt and I was really shooken up by that.
In some ways, the pandemic helped me take a step back and realize that I had to take more time and space for myself. Being under lockdown slowed the pace of my day-to-day and made me realize that I had an underlying sense of anxiety that was causing me to overwork myself. I was making work that I was proud of, but I wasn't treating my mind and body well. I'm kind of grateful that the pandemic allowed me to take a step back and realize that I needed to care for myself more so that I could make art in a more sustainable way.
What projects have you completed lately that you're most proud of? What have you had the most fun working on?
This year I've had a slow start with making work because I moved a couple months ago and have been transitioning in many ways in life. But, man, last year I made some really dope stuff that I'm proud of. I had the opportunity over the summer to participate in the WARP residency at Clayroom SF. During my three-month residency I was able to take different classes and workshops that expanded my knowledge and pushed my work to the next level.
One of my favorite pieces that I made during my time in residency was a large, 14-inch tall chalice I created in honor of Chango. I could not have made that piece without taking part in a workshop on throwing larger pieces on the wheel. I had a lot of fun challenging myself in pushing my technical skills and created something that I never thought I could. And on top of that, I loved how I designed it and really had fun with it in the process.
I also really enjoyed my time in the wood shop at Clayroom. For years I‘ve been drawn to working with wood and I was really excited to have the opportunity to be able to expand my knowledge in another medium. I had the best time working on the lathe and becoming familiar with the tools in the shop. I ended up making a wooden stool with a ceramic plate fitted on the top.
You've been working out of the same studio since I met you, and recently expanded your work area. Can you tell me a little bit about the space that you work in, and what's an average day at the studio like for you?
Yeah fasho, so I've been at my studio for six years now since I moved here in 2016. What I love about this ceramic studio is that it's one of the only ones in SF that allows for artists to have actual floor space and our own desk to do what we want with. When I first began, I only had a cubby in the basement level. Over the years I've went from a cubby, to a small space downstairs, to then moving upstairs and having one of the largest spaces in the studio. I'm extremely grateful for how far I've come along. I feel like the more I physically expand my space, the more motivated I become to branch out and create larger pieces, create more work, and even one day run my own ceramic studio.
An average day for me is coming in, choppin’ it up with my other studio mates and then getting started in some work. I'm always working on many different projects at once so I'm usually checking up on where I'm at with things and deciding what I want to work on that day. Sometimes I have things out of the bisque kiln, so I wanna glaze and sometimes I wanna just start fresh and throw on the wheel. Or I’ll already have thrown a piece on the wheel and I’ll wanna start carving into it. I love how ceramics is so diverse and multifaceted in its creation process. It really challenges me and keeps my studio time exciting.
You've told me you are planning on doing some exhibitions of work in the near future and focusing on ceramics that are more sculptural and less utilitarian. Can you tell me a little bit about how the approaches to these two types of ceramics compare and contrast for you? And what do you envision for an exhibit of your work?
I'm very excited to be working on a solo exhibition of my work. I have yet to have my own show and present my work all in one space so it's been many years in the making. The intention for this show is to not only showcase my body of work, but to create an experience for the viewer. My work has a lot of personal significance and spirituality interwoven into it. And that is how I want to present my work to the world.
When it comes to my sculptural pieces, it takes me many hours a day over a period of weeks to complete a piece. I spend time researching, sketching, throwing, carving, glazing and perfecting the piece to bring my vision to life. A lot of my sculptural work is still functional but has multifaceted meaning and is not only physically laborious, but mentally and emotionally charged.
My sculptural work in comparison to my more functional pieces that I was to, let’s say, vend with at events is a different creative process. My functional pieces tend to be centered around offering bowls, incense burners, and planters. I hold my functional pieces dear to me as well, but they take less time and energy to create because they are often times smaller, more affordable, and I’ll make many pieces at a time, in batches. I’d also like to point out that oftentimes my sculptural pieces are functional, but I would not consider my functional pieces that I make in batches and sell to a majority of folks as sculptural.
This also ties into our last question, but I've noticed that that debate between functional-versus-sculptural is something that comes up pretty regularly in ceramics talk. Where do you stand on this? And are there any contemporary ceramicists working in either that you find particularly inspiring?
I’ve always felt the debate between sculptural and functional work in ceramics was a bit pretentious and its purpose being to gate keep the fine art world. To me, one of the beauties of ceramics is that it’s an art form that can be woven into a person’s everyday life through its functionality. For example, I’ll spend weeks working on an offering bowl that has a lot of spiritual significance and was challenging to create, so to me that is a fine art piece, but it’s also functional because it’s a bowl that’s been created to be used in one’s spiritual practice. A lot of people can take one side or the other on the debate, viewing it not as fine art, but as just a bowl. And others would see it as a fine art sculptural piece with functionality.
I love incorporating function into my sculptures because I feel that it is an art in itself to have a piece that is incorporated into ritual or day to day routine. My pieces are a representation of untouchable forces, being, spirits and concepts. My work aims to bridge the gap between the spiritual world and the physical world – and that is a function in itself.
There are many ceramic artists that I feel play with that fine line. Amie Luczkowski-Gibson creates beautiful, hand built, hand carved incense burners, planters, and altars that I really resonate with. Her technical skill and amount of time and intention she puts into each piece makes each of them one of a kind. I also really resonate with Sharif Bey, a brilliant sculptor who has a wide ranging portfolio. He creates large face masks, standing sculptures, as well as mugs and vessels. His work is so raw and tapped-in to me. He is the type of artist that can do it all while staying true to himself with amazing technique and execution.
From what I've seen, you're also pretty talented at drawing. Do you foresee yourself always sticking to ceramics as your medium of choice, or do you have any plans or ambitions to branch into other mediums?
Thanks Johnny, you know, I be doing my thang. Ceramics will always be my first love and I don't think that I will ever fully steer away from it, but I do want to explore other mediums. I appreciate drawing, but two-dimensional art has never been very rewarding for me. I've always been a tactile, three-dimensional artist and I would need that physical aspect in any art form I explore.
I had mentioned earlier how I love sewing and working with fabrics. I'd love to get more into textile designs and possibly merging fabrics and ceramics in some way. I've also been interested in block printing, something about carving into rubber and creating images through carving seems very exciting to me. I have a vision of creating my own prints and fabrics through block printing and I’ve been sketching out ideas for some cool projects.
I’d also like to continue exploring wood working and possibly making my own furniture in the future. I love to create art for the home and I can see myself working with fabrics, ceramics, and wood to create functional art pieces like furniture, tapestries and pendant lights to adorn homes.
What are you currently most excited about in regards to your work?
I'm really excited about making more work for my exhibition. I'm excited to explore other mediums outside of ceramics and to continue to bridge the gap between sculptural and functional, physical and metaphysical and to bring all of those concepts into one space.
