Jeremy William Felton

Artist Statement

I make pottery, and though my pots are utilitarian, a handmade teapot is far from the easiest way to drink tea. I’m interested in where these objects derive value.

Every piece begins on the wheel, where thrown clay defines a volume in space. I then push, pull, cut, and alter that space, interrupting smooth lines to slow the eye as it moves over a piece. My forms begin with ancient Greek vessels, shapes that have survived millennia of use and iteration. I make series of vessels based on the same geometry, using that framework to develop my own aesthetic ideas and physically exploring what has allowed certain shapes to remain compelling for so long.

I often throw these forms with a double wall or pair them with carved saggars, designing both for interaction with a soda kiln. Atmospheric firing lets me seal process onto each surface. I grew up on a small farm, and like locally grown food, I want my work to carry a traceable history–a narrative that reflects the person, materials, and place that produced it. Rather than reproducing an identical surface from pot to pot, the firing leaves each object with evidence of the particular conditions that made it. For me, that specificity is part of what gives a handmade object value in a world where industrial production can replicate equally functional objects.

Through deliberate loading, saggars and double-walled construction, and careful downfiring, I use the kiln’s draft like light through a camera lens, printing the conditions of each firing onto the surfaces of my work. Each piece leaves the kiln carrying a record of where it was, what surrounded it, and how it was made, inviting an interaction that lasts a little longer than a Starbucks cup tends to ask for.

CV

363 Laurel St, Hartford, CT 06105
felton@hartford.edu · (707) 329-5280

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