Ogden Museum: Art of the Cup Ceramist Highlight

An Interview with Nathalia Toledo Barcia

Did you face any obstacles becoming a ceramicist and how did you overcome them?

I learned the basics of ceramics in a 3-month workshop with pre-Columbian technologies and techniques, using earth pigments and rustic clays that were completely hand mixed and where you could see traces of minerals and soil. My teachers were museum anthropologists who restored these ceramics. When I moved to the USA I learned to  experiment with the new materials I found here. I learned through observation and a lot of trial and error! I was exposed to new sculpting techniques, glazes and different clay bodies. It was a challenge but eventually I found porcelain as my main medium. In the end, it was worth the journey as experience transforms an artist into a master. Patience is necessary because it takes a long time, sometimes  a lifetime. I have a long way to go to consider myself a master, but it’s a goal, a dream I can achieve.

Patience, letting things go, and accepting reality have all been part of the process as much as the minerals that make up the clay. There is frustration and sadness when an artwork cracks in the last fire or doesn’t come out as I imagined. In that challenge there is a lesson in slowing down. After all, the earth that makes up these pieces has been around for a long time. The earth has a way of reminding us to slow down.

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