2023, 2" x 2" x 2", Media: Porcelain, Firing Process: Wood fired, Surface: Engobe / Slip / Underglaze
Bright yellow Sipper
2024, 2' x 2' x 2', Media: Mixed Media, Firing Process: Wood fired
Woodfired Table top with shaped pine legs. Photo Credit:"Garrett Thompson - Floating Leaf Studios"
2021, 2' x 3' x 18", Media: Mixed Media
Large woodfired tabletop with added redwood legs
2023, 6" x 4" x 1/2",Firing Process: Wood fired
I have been Working with Forrest Middleton FLMCERAMICS.COM to produce a line of woodfired ceramic tile.
2023, 13" x 11" x 6", Media: Stoneware, Firing Process: Wood fired
Thrown and altered these vases feel so good you want to cary them around for no good reason.
2023, 4" x 4" x 3", Media: Porcelain, Firing Process: Wood fired, Surface: Engobe / Slip / Underglaze, Glazed
I started playing with underglazes in the wood kiln recently. It's an interesting process to see how the ash and the atmosphere corrode and change these commercial engobes.
2021, 22" x 22" x 7", Media: Stoneware, Firing Process: Wood fired, Surface: Unglazed
From a series of thick and monumental peices that keep me returning.
8” x 8” x 1”, Wood-fired Porcelain
9’” x 9” x 1”, Wood-fired Stoneware
4” x 3.5” x 3.5”, Wood-fired Porcelain
Artist Statement
Several years ago I stood back and looked at my work, taking stock of what I saw I decided where I wanted it to go. Being overly ambitious, and seeking an ideal rather than the practical I aimed high. I decided I wanted my work to reach past the contemporary, beyond style and taste, touching something primal in all of us. I wanted to make work that reaches that which is first in the human experience, pottery that draws from tradition but resonates regardless of when it might be experienced.
In the 6th century a monk named Dorotheus of Gaza wrote a beautiful metaphor for God. Dorotheus spoke of God as the hub on a wheel, and we are all spokes around that center. In order for us to move closer to God we must move closer to everyone else on that wheel, and in the center is oneness. Anything that is divisive and exclusionary moves us away from all other people and thus moves us away from God.
In Judaism we have a core prayer called the Sh'ma. The Sh'ma says "Listen of Israel, the lord is God. The lord is one." The concept of unity, togetherness, oneness, center as divine permeates almost all religions, and spiritual disciplines. It is root theology. For my own pottery I want it to speak to a broad audience but to do this by reaching core ideas rather than dilution and syncretism. The spokes on the wheel that I use to approach the center are, clay, elemental processes, simple drawings and line, functional pottery, and community objects.
Clay
Clay is pervasive. It crosses almost all cultures and time. Clay is accessible, it is underfoot, it is in our homes, our industry our daily lives. We discover pliable clay as children playing in the dirt, and we bring it to our lips as we drink from a cup in the morning. Clay is in our theologies and how we think about ourselves. Clay unites us in these ways and allows me as an artist to discuss universality.
Elemental Process
Fire, earth, wind and water are the tools of every potter, and are the common experience of humanity. Firing with wood allows me to evoke colors from the raw earth, capture the path of flame as it travels on the wind of the kiln. In this way my work makes reference to things we all know and see.
Simple Drawings
We are mark makers, and have ever been so. From cave painting to impressionism, pictographic languages to keeping track of time, marks can decorate divide space, tell a story or make the simple statement that we were here. I use crude marks in my work looking to avoid cultural specific symbols but rather create an invitation for personal interpretation. Circles and lines, the simple geography of a wheel or a square are clear evidence of my hand in the material.
Functional Pottery
We all eat. Food is the most common of experiences. Making functional pottery offers me access to the home. I make recognizable ware for daily use, as well as objects that are for special occasion. A cup held in the hand, placed against the lips delivering sustenance is a deeply intimate space for an artist to connect with another person. Not only does the tradition of pottery cross cultures and time, but the metaphor of human as vessel resonates in most theologies.
Community objects
Pottery that either serves multiple people or makes reference to a communal meal speaks of generosity. Serving bowls, cauldrons, or sculptural houses that extend ideas of singular home into neighborhoods are ways to talk about the larger human experience as social animals.
As my journey in clay continues I may discover more spokes, and more ways to speak eloquently outside of my own narrow world. Travel and the continued exploration of core human connections strengthen my belief in this new artistic direction.
-- Simon Levin
Bio
Simon Levin has been working in clay since 1990 when an elective ceramics course changed the arc of his life. Simon is a full-time studio potter working almost exclusively with wood firing. An MFA recipient from the University of Iowa, Simon exhibits, teaches, builds kilns, and is published internationally. In 2013 he was a Senior Fulbright Scholar in Taiwan. Between 2004 and 2022 his apprenticeship program has trained 23 potters. He hosts a video series on the Ceramics Arts Network, where he brings dialogue to process. Formerly Director at Large for the National Council for Education of the Ceramic Arts (NCECA), and the founder of Cohorts.Art (a small batch mentorship program) Simon seeks every day to advance the frontiers of clay, and evangelize for this empowering material.
In 2021 Simon began collaborating with Virgil Ortiz. Their collaboration has been a fruitful exploration of culture and narrative as well as process sharing. Currently Simon has been designing custom shields (Ha’pon) for characters in Virgil’s future narrative. This process of world building and story telling has had profound influence on Simon’s work.