Susan Folwell In conversation with James D. Balestrieri
JDB: You come from a long tradition and celebrated family of ceramicists, when did you decide to add your luster to theirs?SF: I decided to become a potter when I left photography/art school and was living in the Midwest (that’s a whole other story) working at a camera and video store when they still existed. I asked my mom to send me clay. It was pretty disastrous in the beginning. I sent my pits to a dealer in Albuquerque. who sent them back and said in a note attached, “I can’t even use these for doorstops.” That put a fire in me. I’m grateful to him.
JDB: What would you say is your greatest source of inspiration?SF: The greatest inspiration I can always fall back on is pop art and comics. I love the graphic illustration and “POW” factor.
JDB: Is inspiration a constant for you or do inspirations come and go?SF: The ebb and flow of my work is always more in experimenting with techniques and materials. I find I always come back to those two inspirations.
JDB: What do you consider some of your proudest achievements?SF: I’m very proud when each piece is born and enters the world. I’m grateful museums and collectors acknowledge my work. The hard part is you keep telling yourself you can do better.
JDB: What’s next? What are you contemplating or working on now?SF: The current work is influenced by Route 66, pulp fiction and men’s magazines of the 1950s/1960s, also great graphic illustration. I’m enjoying working with micaceous clay. It seems to be very forgiving when wanting to do more sculptural work.
representationKing Galleries, Scottsdale, AZ & Santa Fe, NM, kinggalleries.com
Images courtesy King Galleries
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