DENISE GREENWOOD-LOVELESS |
What clay body do you use?
Primary forming method?
Primary firing temperature?
Favorite surface treatment?
Favorite Tools?
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Describe your studio environment.
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How/Where do you market your artwork? How/Where do you sell your artwork?
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What sparks your creativity? What drives you to work with clay?
"I LOVE seeing what other artists are doing. I adore children’s art and talking with kids about art. I get lots of inspiration from gallery shows and art exhibits, this is when I am most energized in the studio, after just having filled the well with fabulous visuals. I have a bit of Stendahl Syndrome in that I really feel art in my bones and my skin, my breathing and heart rate slow down while looking at art I love. I know immediately when I am looking at something that speaks to me, I truly feel it. Clay was an accidental segue from working with metal as a jeweler. Metal is hard both figuratively and literally. I didn’t feel this until I stopped making jewelry. A friend sat me down with a lump of clay and I immediately made seven little heads. I was smitten. Clay felt almost ‘weightless’."Did you come to pottery from a different career? Tell us about your journey to a ceramics career. "I worked as a freelance set decorator and art director in the film industry. It was something I stumbled into with no training. I’d meet with producers and directors who’d say we need, or we want, and it didn’t matter what it was, a giant piggy bank, a twelve foot wide engagement ring box, buried pirates’ treasure (I’ve done all of these and lots more), I’d shake their hands and say, no problem, then I’d walk away trying to figure out how to make that happen. For the first few years, it was mostly lower budget projects and I found later that that’s exactly where I shine, the harder I have to push myself to deliver, the better the finished project will be. There’s no textbook on this stuff, I was making things up as I went along. I found myself more and more making the props I needed, seeking out projects that allowed me to be wildly creative. So when it came to clay, I was definitely no stranger to building “stuff”." |
How have you have taken your experience as a well-established maker in the field and passed that knowledge along to students?
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What’s the best advice you’ve been given by a fellow maker, mentor, or teacher?
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Website URL and other social media platforms: www.artofgreenwood.comBio: My work is about human imperfection. I resent the package we are sold by much of media regarding a one-size-fits-all notion of beauty. Having grown up with a handicapped brother, I grew up knowing the incredible beauty in imperfection. When we have young people with body image problems, with self-loathing & massive lack of self-confidence, this is a problem I feel we need to address. My question is, 'what is beauty & what is perfection'? My message is 'we get to decide'. My work is mostly play. Where I do work is in trying to explore the line where beautiful & grotesque, edgy & whimsical, dark & light converge, & answer each other in an honest conversation about perfection. I’m constantly searching in this place, delving into this notion of imperfection as a way of satisfying my curiosity. |