Brent Pafford
BIOGRAPHY
Brent Pafford is a ceramic artist currently based in Eugene, Oregon. Pafford has exhibited nationally since completing his MFA in ceramics in 2014, at Clemson University, most recently he was an invited artist at the 2018 American Pottery Festival at Northern Clay Center in Minneapolis. In 2015, he won the Retired Professors Merit Award at NCECA’s Student Juried Exhibition; in 2016, he was awarded the prestigious Jury Prize at the ArtFields Art Competition; and also in 2016 he received a Presidential Scholarship to attend Anderson Ranch in Snowmass, Colorado. Pafford currently has work showing in Portland, OR, New Orleans, Minneapolis, and Washington, DC.
Q&A WITH THE ARTIST
Carbondale Clay Center (CCC): What’s your favorite beverage snapshot?
Brent Pafford (BP): Choose libation, mix/create/muddle/shake/stir/add ice – pour. Enjoy! Be weary for gravity is resilient!
CCC: Where does your creative process begin (i.e. sketchbook, specific routine, image reference, etc.)? What considerations do you think about when creating drinking vessels?
BP: Currently my creative process begins with processes in which harness anxiety, tasks that keep my idle hands and mind busy creating and exploring texture, material, and form. When creating drinking vessels I consider the performative aspects of use; whether that be in social settings or individual rituals.
CCC: Do you have a certain type of vessel that you prefer to drink from? Does it vary based on the beverage?
BP: To be honest I rarely drink out of ceramic objects. I spend the majority of my waking life working in a local grocery resulting in Nalgene bottle life, a sparkling water here or there, and a can or 2 after 5pm. The nuance of vessels does not go unnoticed – I quit drinking coffee a while back as well. I do very much enjoy getting a nice collection of cups out when friends are over and hearing the reasons for selection.
CCC: When creating a mug, I often hear about the detail and time taken for the handle. Do you have a handle size and type that you prefer to use? Why? Does that directly inform your creative process?
BP: I love handle lore, especially in the realm of functional ceramics – multiple artists, professors, and peers exclaim that one must make hundreds of thousands of handles in all shapes, sizes, and methods to find the right fit and learn the craft of a well fitting handle – for he most part, they are right. To make light of this and work in some humor I choose to use found objects as handles – pyrite or fools gold is preferred, Oregon beach stones are finding their way into the work too.
CCC: What makes handmade pottery unique to you? Why use a handmade object to sip your coffee, tea, water, etc.?
BP: Handmade objects are unique because they require an investigation into perspective and voice through material manipulation. Each object is the introduction to a new story patiently waiting to be written through time and use.
CCC: What influences your pots? What are you looking at or thinking about when making specific beverageware?
BP: A fascination for queer absurdity - a purposeful disruption in the monotony of the everyday. Joy, whether lost or found in the work. Purposefully interrogating the normative aspects of functionality.
CCC: Is there a certain type of drinking vessel that you prefer making? Or one that seems to always be sought after by customers?
BP: The objects I create are constantly developing. I have been working on POPJCT objects for a few years now and hope to continue with this body of work for a while.
CCC: How do you define art within your functional pottery? Do you consider pottery to be a form of art?
BP: I actively am attempting to dismantle classist structures within the work I create, Art is Pottery, Pottery is Art.
CCC: When creating pottery, do you work in a series or body of work? At what point do you transition from one series to another?
BP: I have been working in the same series of body of work now for about 3 years and I am allowing the work the space to grow and change when it is needed. Visual and material languages mature naturally, embrace the growth!
CCC: What keeps you inspired in the studio
BP: Daily life and how to process life through material exploration is partially what keeps my interest in the studio. We are constantly learning and processing living, these investigations inform the work I am creating.
CCC: How do color, surface, and form influence your work? Does each of those design elements play equal roles in your making process? Is one emphasized over others?
BP: I pull color, surface, and form inspiration from things that surround me as I move throughout the world. Colors are often reminiscent of times of day, west coast sunsets, and bright light cutting through fog; a product of looking at the sun and squinting, the shifting sands of low tide. Forms remind me of the juxtaposition in geologic formations that scatter the Oregon landscape, soft versus hard, dense on top of airy. Textures are seasonal; moss takes over in the winter only to disappear in the summer. I believe these aspects of the work must work in harmony to be successful.