LIZ PECHACEK •   INVER GROVE HEIGHTS, MN

"I grew up with an artist mother and a scientist father. My family valued work ethic, creativity, and nonconformity, ideals which uniquely complement the field of ceramics. I benefited from an early introduction to art and art history and had access to an array of courses and materials throughout my childhood. Once in college, I gravitated to a focus in ceramics, and graduated with a BFA in ceramics and art history in 2012. What followed was a circuitous path through various blue-collar gigs including working at a cabinet factory and an apprenticeship in the ironworkers’ union I started my ceramics business in 2015. Initially, I was making mostly small-scale decorative objects and housewares to support myself financially. Most of my commercial work was slip cast from hand-built prototypes. I continued making the strange and delicate forms I had developed in college and was able to have a solo exhibition of these vessels in sculptures in 2016. In that same year, I showed at my first American Craft Council show and found a market for both lines of work. Since then, I have been teaching workshops, selling at various national craft shows and exhibiting nationally in galleries."

"I am interested in a deliberate and methodical exploration of form utilizing various hand building techniques. The archaic process of adding coils, then pinching and hammering to refine the profile allows me to search and respond to the clay as I bring up the walls of the vessel. Working in this way, the objects tend to acquire a sensuous volume stippled by the frenetic energy of so many fingermarks. I like to use very rudimentary homemade tools in the manner of our prehistoric ancestors, finding inspiration in slow, focused labor. Once the piece is dry, I apply washes of color, line and stippling in a playful re-examination of the form through the surface. The beauty of the bare clay is something I celebrate, and I use many different clay bodies in combination with slips, glaze, and metallic elements to this end."