Clay Art Center Artists Robin Henschel, Caito Stewart, and Susan Wortman discuss the inspiration behind their work in the Come Together exhibition and their artistic processes.

Come Together is this year’s annual Clay Art Center Artist exhibition, featuring works made up of two parts that come together to form a greater whole. The show is guest curated by former Artist-in-Residence Kelli Stewart, and it presents a variety of expressions of connection and reconnection, finding common ground, and the struggle between individual identity and shared experience. Each artwork represents the artist’s unique reflection on coming together - we caught up with Robin Henschel, Caito Stewart, and Susan Wortman to learn more about their sources of inspiration.

Robin Henschel is well-known for her sculptures of animals - just this past semester she taught a called Animal Antics, which focused on animal sculptures. When asked what draws her to animal figures, Robin had this to say, "I like their personalities. I've always been interested in Medieval animals; the way people thought animals look is so different. I have whole books of them and they're so great, they're hysterical, and I use them for inspiration all the time. The way people used to think about what the world was like just fascinates me - the monsters in people's heads." Robin’s submission to Come Together is a set of rolling bowls titled Like Cats and Dogs, which is part of her antagonists series. The series was originally inspired by the Pushmi-Pullyu (pronounced "push-me—pull-you") from the Dr. Dolittle series, which is depicted as a gazelle-unicorn cross with two heads, one at either end of its body. For Robin, creating a series of works gives her the space to play out her ideas in many different ways, learning with each iteration. She advises, "It's good to have an idea that you work out in a lot of different ways in a series. I've made Dream Caches, fountains, monsters - don't stop with an idea, keep exploring." Robin continues to explore her many creative ideas through functional sculpture, which is her preferred work. Robin says she’s happiest when her work has a function, and people are invited to interact with and feel the piece.

Robin stands at the entrance to her studio next to a large metal shelf full of ceramics. A large bay of windows is directly behind her.

Robin sits at her work bench sanding the details of a small statue of a goat.

Close up of two cone packs shaped to look like little snakes with the cones forming spikes along their backs. There is a thistle-like dried flower in between the cone packs.

Two bowls on wheels stand side by side, one shaped like a greenish cat with a chartreuse nose, and the other shaped like a dog with a lolling yellow tongue and a spiked collar.

The piece Rooted in Reality by Caito Stewart is a celebration of her freedom to learn about and grapple with the beauty of living in a physical, impermanent world. Trees hold a special place in Caito’s heart; she loves that they communicate with and take care of one another, fulfill so many important functional roles in our ecosystem, and participate in the cycle of life. According to Caito, “The dead tree stump, covered in moss and lichen and fungi, is a beautiful symbol of a life once lived, now being returned to the earth. I can’t stop taking photos of beautiful tree stumps lately.” Beyond the ecological wonders of trees, the connection that Caito draws on in her piece is also deeply personal: “Art and nature are so important to my own way of coping with and processing my life experiences. When my younger brother passed unexpectedly at age 9, his ashes were scattered under a Japanese Maple tree, but I didn’t find out about the tree until I was grieving my mother more than 20 years later. That was when I became interested in depicting and learning more about trees, as I finally began processing the loss of him, too. I wasn’t really allowed to acknowledge it or grieve as a child, because it was against my family’s religion.” In addition to the deep connection that Caito has with her subject matter, she also welcomes a fluidity to her process, particularly as a multi-medium artist. As she is creating a piece that she’s conceptualized or sketched first, Caito responds to new ideas and challenges as they arise: “For this particular piece, I didn’t realize that the tree stump needed some lichen until after it had already been fired. The clay I used here was also very rough and groggy, which didn’t lend itself well to doing small details. So sometimes, like in this case, using the resin clay comes out of necessity… As for using acrylic paint, I was originally trained as a painter, so I really love using paint, rather than glaze or underglaze, to decorate my ceramic sculptures. I find I have more control over the colors and details and can achieve more realism.” This realism brings Caito’s tree stump to life, and its lichen-painted root system seems to grow organically from its pedestal in the Gallery.

Caito sits in the classroom pinching a small lump of clay into a pot. A larger pinch pot and a ball of clay sit in front of her.

Caito smiles as she pinches the sides of a large pinch pot in the classroom.

Caito smiles standing next to her piece Rooted in Reality in the Gallery.

The piece rooted in reality is a ceramic hollowed-out stump covered in green lichen and moss with a ceramic human spine emerging from the center.

For Susan Wortman, inspiration often comes from earlier movements in art history. Her series Winged Woman was influenced by the work of Classical Greek and Roman sculptors, and particularly their use of realism and beauty when depicting the nude human form. Susan’s more recent work, including her piece Twins in the exhibition, is more inspired by Gaudi and Rococo art, which are noted for their playful colors, high ornamentation, and intricate details. For some pieces, as with Twins, this can include actual found Rococo-style pieces. Susan describes her process of incorporating found ceramic pieces: “In Twins, I hand built an abstract female figure covered in decorations and ornaments, standing on a base. I then found a realistic porcelain figurine at a local thrift store and, inspired by my abstract figurine, transformed this found figure by adding ornaments and raising it to stand on a similar base.” When asked about her time at Clay Art Center, Susan noted that she has been an artist here for 24 years, and that it is her, “supportive professional and personal community, [where] I have a private space that allows me to work alone yet I am surrounded by talented, knowledgeable and generous colleagues and friends.”