Y1 E5: Ross Junior Owusu: Migration, Identity, Ancestorship

All images are courtesy of the artist

Ross Junior Owusu is an Artist working in Ceramics, Performance, and Mixed media. He holds a B.A in Industrial Art (Ceramic Option) from Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Ghana.

Ross is a Third Year MFA candidate at Wayne State University (WSU) and a Teaching Assistant, teaching Introduction to Ceramics at Wayne State University, Detroit Michigan.

Ross has been in several exhibitions including Y’ak)fa; Ruptures and Renewals in Art from Ghana and Nigeria, Fayetteville Public Library, University of Arkansas, Y’akyi Nnwa; Let’s have a conversation, Daum Museum; Sedalia Missouri, the Todd Art Gallery-Mid-south Tennessee University and Ceramics 2024 at the Materia Gallery in Core city, Detroit. Ross is the 2024-2025 Thomas C. Rumble Graduate Fellowship Awardee, Wayne State University, a 2023 National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts (NCECA) Multicultural Fellowship Fellow, The 2024 Dr. Judith Temple Scholarship, Arrowmont School of Art and Craft, 2023 Full Scholarship Pennland Recipient and the James Peter Duffy Assistantship Award for both 2022 and 2023 Academic Years.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hi Ross, I'm so happy to be here with you. I've been following your work for some time. I am amazed at how much depth you can get from relatively simple materials. 

Ross Junior Owusu

What do you love about making art?

What I love about making art is the dynamism to doing one thing in several different ways with either technique or material creating a spectrum of possibilities. 

Which mediums do you like working with the most? What are some of the more unusual ones you've used?

The mediums I work with is broad, covering clay, wood, metal parts, glass, and fabric. The unusual ones are resin or epoxy, bronze, aluminum casts, and nylon ropes.

What do you love about that?

I love how each material has a character of its own but yet can be combined with several others to also get another character with a form.

How do you evaluate your work?

I evaluate my work by the simplest connection that can be drawn from the physical form before a narrative is given, and if a narrative is given too, there must be a deeper connection to the form and concept. 

Where is your studio, and what is your primary work area?

My studio is on Wayne State campus in a facility called the foundry and that’s my primary work area.

What clues or questions do you use to select an idea to invest time and
resources?

 How do I relate to the concept

 How will I produce it

 What scale befits

 What aesthetics fully unite the concept, form, and finishing

 How will someone comprehend the work in their space

 How does it coexist in a cultural ecosystem

About your work: what do you hope people notice the most?

People notice my incisions, shapes and use of trade beads. 

What is your favorite guilty pleasure?

Mostly working almost with little less clothes.

How do you define success as a creative? How do you hold yourself
accountable?

I hold myself accountable by setting month-semester or yearly objectives and marking them out.

"I love how each material has a character of its own but yet can be combined with several others to also get another character with a form."

When do you discuss things with your inner critic?

When I feel like there is more done to a body of work and it seems to feel little. That’s when I really break it down to get it very simple.

What advice do you have about throwing away work?

Well, I won’t advise throwing away work completely but will advise keeping it as canvas for development.

What advice can you share for artists who want to sell their work {online}?

I will say there is no actual value for a work of art, but selling should be on value of ownership because people buy works for just the mere aesthetic of it or reselling to make more profit from the artist's personality.

What would you tell other artists when they get frustrated with a project?

What I often do at that point is take a few steps back to reflect on my processing language to the point reached. Often, I reach to fellow artist or ordinary people to get a different perspective and after the incubating period, I go back with a fresh mind.

Who are your creative influences, and whose work are you admiring now?

My creative influences are those that expound on migration, questioning the originality of cultural identity, the legacies of impacts of racial marginalization and Cultural invasion.

• David Hammond
• Noah Purifoy
• Yinka shonibare
• El Anatsu
• Frederick E. Okai
• Vincent Sniper Frimpong
• Japheth Aseidu-kwarteng

How can people follow you and your work?

Website: hi.rossbyhands.com
Instagram: @rossbyhands

What would you like people to know that I haven't asked?

Who do I see myself to be; I am a Ghanian, African artist not just a BLACK person. I am, of course, a floating cultural being, but I know my roots, and my roots are the foundations of greater Ancestor-ship from the every pulse of my land. [emph by artist] 

Thank you for spending this time with me/us, Ross. I am inspired by the contrasts, detail, and delicacy in your work. Congrats on entering the third year of the MFA program. It's going to go fast. 

Open Invitation: Please come back whenever you have something to share with the ChC audience!

Y1 E4: Paula Damm - Stories Pulled from Time

~10 minute read 

Paula Damm

Together Voices, 2024

Hi Paula, I'm so happy to have this conversation with you. I've been following your work for a little while now, and I am continually amazed at how you seem to keep topping yourself.

Hi, Creatives_having_coffee. Thanks for the invite!!!

I am Paula Damm, and I started calling myself an “artist” about 4-5 years ago. Prior to that, I was a Registered Nurse for forty years (I graduated from nursing school in 1979). The last 21 years were spent in my dream job as a school nurse in a high school. My Cleveland Heights, OH home is my studio and an AIRBNB.

Paula Damm: The Artist

I have always embraced traditional women’s access to creativity, i.e., knitting, needlework, sewing, and, most recently, weaving. After making the millionth woven hand towel, I felt drawn to experimenting with weaving. I was fascinated with hidden messages and how erasure/fracturing doesn’t lessen the message – the message is still there but unreadable. I became familiar with asemic writing (writing that could not be read), and I was off running. This idea of embedded messaging into the weave structure led me to many projects, including a collaborative piece that I did with my sister, which amazingly got into a show in St. Augustine, Florida. I was stunned that I got a piece in a show. I went to the opening and met Tony Williams, an amazing Cleveland artist who had a sweet child’s garment that he made from paper in the show. He invited me to check out Cleveland’s Morgan Conservatory to take classes in papermaking.  The rest is history.

I am completely self-taught. Thinking being an artist meant knowing how to draw and paint, I took an oil painting class privately, which confirmed what I thought - this was not my skill set.  I decided maybe I should just stick with what I know – which was what I had been doing my whole life. I took all the skills that I have taught myself over my lifetime (weaving, knitting, needlework), added a few new things (papermaking, spinning, dying, working with plaster), and began to experiment. I think that my background brought a unique foundation to the new techniques I was learning about. Additionally, this late career bloom helped me to be fearless and not worried about how things went. It was play, really, that at times turned into something that I liked.

~~~~~~~~~~~

What do you love about making art?

I love when a new idea emerges into my consciousness.  Getting there can be painful and take a long time.  My work is generally somewhat complicated, tedious, and time-consuming but also meditative and cathartic when it tells a personal story. I love seeing others work and being inspired.  

Ghost Dress

Which mediums do you like working with the most? What are some of the more unusual ones you've used?

I’ll try anything. I love telling my own story through the making, dealing with issues like aging, loss, angst, and trauma. I see things through this lens. My favorite medium is paper, and finding ways to incorporate it into pieces that are unique or edgy. 

One work called Vestige involved gathering volunteers so that I could cast their umbilicus (belly buttons) using alginate and plaster.  It was meant to denote the sometimes-fraught relationship between mother and child. Art students from the University of Akron’s art department participated. People also volunteered after I sent a call out on Facebook.  I went to their homes/schools.  It was amazing and sometimes emotional.

Vestiges

Another favorite piece used social media to collect the voices of participants saying the word "TOGETHER" in their preferred language. Sound waves were then embroidered on vintage linen. 

What do you love about that?

I love the questions that came up around Vestige. Many student participants surprisingly did not realize that their umbilicus was the mark their birth mother left on their person via the umbilical cord. Some had fraught relationships with their birth mother or had been adopted. I acknowledged the triggers this project could uncover. Obviously, all had a choice whether to participate or not. 

With TogetherVoice the finished colorful piece looks like a jubilant chorus. I am so honored to have people participate in this during the pandemic isolation. It was wonderful to have 130 plus participants from across the world including Africa and women in a prison arts program in Italy.

"Sometimes I feel like I am building
an airplane and flying it at the same time."

How do you evaluate your work?

I evaluate the piece personally.  I got a lot of strange looks with the vestige project. Some thought it too weird, and intrusive, and didn’t want to participate. That was OK, I knew it was an ask and accepted that but was determined that it was something I wanted/needed to make.  It’s especially gratifying that people have demonstrated that they like what I have done through purchasing a piece, getting juried into a show, asking to show, and rarely winning an award.

Stream with Code

Where is your studio, and what is your primary work area?

My studio is every available space in my home! The basement is my paper studio and supply storage, and the first floor, including TV room and bedroom are work/storage areas. The deck and patio provide outdoor areas that give me best light and fresh air.

Reading is Resistance: A Tribute to Banned and Challenged Books

The Insidiousness of it All

 

What clues or questions do you use to select an idea to invest time and resources?

My work is personal and tells stories of my life. I frame so much around loss, aging, family, and my own struggles with mental health.  Sometimes, when scrounging through second-hand stores, vintage shops, and estate sales, I find interesting things and buy them.  Examples of this include finding hundreds of library catalog cards in a resale shop for $2. I used them to make Reading is Resistance: A Tribute to Banned and Challenged Books, which won awards.  Another is Aunt Edna’s Personal Protective Equipment Against Solar Flares, which was created from 176 hand-woven potholders I found in a resale store in Florida for $14.

About your work: what do you hope people notice the most?

My work is complicated in that most pieces tell a story.  Viewers may think the work is attractive, but understanding the story is vital to being able to fully see the piece. I have started integrating QR codes as an actual part of the work and encourage the viewer to scan the code as they view the work. This allows them to more fully participate in the piece.

 

What is your favorite guilty pleasure?

Ice cream with no guilt. Guilt diminishes pleasure, honey!

 

How do you define success as a creative? How do you hold yourself accountable?

I try to work every day. Thinking or reading something art related or working with my hands. Success for me is finishing something I like enough so I can share it with others. appreciation from others. Getting into a show is awesome and winning an award is mindblowing – having something purchased is very special.

 

When do you discuss things with your inner critic?

Always.

 

What advice do you have about throwing away work?

I usually hang onto stuff because if it was a “fail” it often ends up in something else. If it is a complete bomb I just toss it or burn it and use the ashes in something else.

Reworking the Negative

 

What would you tell other artists when they get frustrated with a project?

Walk away. I leave stuff hanging around for a long time and often find myself trying to rework things. Sometimes I feel like I am building an airplane and flying it at the same time.  I usually have multiple things going on at once and if I am unhappy or stuck I just go to something else.  Currently I have at least four things started, and others lined up in my brain as a basic concept. 

Aunt Edna’s Personal Protective Against Solar Flares

Who are your creative influences, and whose work are you admiring now?

Your work is immensely inspiring for all the layering of components – I love all fiber artists that include paper. Of course Sheila Hicks, Annie Albers, and Louise Bourgeois come to mind first but I also am enthralled with Cecilia Vicuna, and Do Ho Suh’s work with paper. 

How can people follow you and your work?

https://pauladammart.com

Facebook and Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pauladamm3470/ 

 

What would you like people to know that I haven't asked?

My art has a story. I will often use QR codes with most of my work so viewers can hear me explain my inspiration, process, and meaning behind my work. It’s not a ceramic bowl or painting. I foresee this will be a standard in museums in the future.

Thank you for spending some time with me/us, Paula. This has been a blast. I'll never look at my belly button the same way. Please come back whenever you have something to share with the CHC audience!

Laid Out

All images are courtesy of the artist.

Y1 E3: Robert Larocco: Maker, Teacher, Coach

 

Astrid
All images are courtesy of the artist.

Robert Larocco 

I am a 2D artist using many mediums, such as painting, digital illustrations, chalk pastels, and colored pencils, and even developing methods to help others create art. I am from the Detroit, MI, area and have lived in many different parts of the US over the last few years. I’m an academic advisor at the Stamps School of Art & Design (University of Michigan).

Rob Larocco

What do you love about making art?

What I love about making art has changed a lot over the years.  When I was in college, I loved what I was learning about various mediums and their associated media and processes.  I'm a curious person, so learning in general has always been a passion of mine, and being able to learn about and through something I love—creating art—was especially fulfilling.  As a high school art teacher, my love of making art shifted to the ways that I could teach others, especially young people, about how to both create and appreciate art for themselves.  Currently, as an adult who has finally returned to art education after several years working outside of that realm, my love for making art has changed once again.  Now, when I have the time, and I'm in the right mindset for creating art, I find that I enjoy the feeling of nostalgia that I get from returning to a practice that was such a huge part of my life for so long but that over the years I drifted away from.

How do you evaluate your work?

Honestly, I'm happy with any piece that I've actually finished!  I tend to get sidetracked and step away from projects for long periods of time.  When life settles down, oftentimes during the winter months, I return to projects that I've started.  So I guess my answer is, I'm happy with a piece or even a project that I've actually finished, regardless (mostly) of the quality. 

Where is your studio, and what is your primary work area?

I've lived in apartments since I was 18, so I've rarely had the square footage or room for an actual studio space.  I've made my kitchen table, a cleared space in a living room, and, on rare occasions, a spare bedroom my "studio."  My studio is really wherever I can find space to create. :).

What clues or questions do you use to select an idea to invest time and resources?

Much of the work that I've done over the past 4-5 years has been at the request of others, or it's been part of a functional DIY upgrade to something in my home/apartment, like repainting old picture frames.  When it comes to my own work, I tend to utilize subjects that our close and important to me, like pictures of my husband or our dog, Astrid.  Ideation has always been hard for me without having sort of a purpose or prompt to guide me.  It's one of the reasons I enjoyed teaching art, which is because although it's difficult for me to develop concepts or themes for my work, I do enjoy helping others find ways of unlocking or accessing their own creativity by exploring topics, themes, or subjects that are important to them or that they are especially curious about exploring through art.

About your work: what do you hope people notice the most?

Honestly, I'm not sure.  When I create something for someone else, such as the album artwork I did for a musician friend, I hope of course hope that they like it and also that they appreciate the time and thought that went into the creation of the piece(s).  I suppose I hope that people can see my own work, whether a specific piece of art or an upgrade to a functional home accessory, like a picture frame, and appreciate the time that went into it and also appreciate that maybe it's something they would like to try themselves.  

"...if someone truly wants to learn to create art, then they can" 

What is your favorite guilty pleasure?

I really have so many! haha. When it comes to art, I think my favorite guilty pleasure is comic books/comic book art, which I don't actually feel guilty about.  From a very young age I've had a fascination and appreciation for comic book artists.  I love the human form as a subject, and I'm especially attracted to the escapism that the stories in comic books and the science fiction and fantasy genre provide.  I used to love drawing superheroes and was inspired by artists like Alex Ross, Salvador Larocca, and Rob Liefeld.  

How do you define success as a creative? How do you hold yourself accountable?

For me, success as a creative is finding ways to express my creativity in as many aspects of my personal and professional life as possible.  It's usually so hard for me to make time to create "art", mainly I think because I let life and my own procrastination get in the way.  Also, I'm pretty happy with my life and my work, and I think a big reason for that is because I've had to find ways to channel my creativity into areas that are not necessarily related to creating art.  When I left teaching, I found creative outlets in my work in higher education through the development of digital newsletters and flyers, which really brought in elements of design that I hadn't really utilized as a teacher because I primarily focused on fine art mediums, such as drawing, painting, ceramics and the like.  Long story short, even though I'm not actively creating artwork on a regular basis, I do still feel that I am a creative person and I've found success.  

What advice do you have about throwing away work? 

Oh boy, well I've kept two big portfolios of my work from college and from teaching, so...  I can be very sentimental when it comes to things that connect me to my past, like pieces of my own that I created in college and even demos from my years teaching.  It's really hard for me to give those things up because it would mean discarding an important part of myself that I just want to hold onto.  I also feel like I have a terrible memory, and forgetting important things from my past is a little scary to me.  For those who live to create though, I can see the value or the cathartic aspect of throwing away work they aren't happy with or that is representative of someone they feel they no longer are. For me, I like to hold on to certain things, but ultimately, I think we all have to do what makes us happy.

How can people follow you and your work?

Honestly, the best way is to ask me about it.  I have social media accounts, but because I'm not a very active creator of art, I don't post often.  I do go through little spurts of artistic creativity, so if one of those comes along and some artwork is born from that, then I'll share it with others.  

What would you like people to know that I haven't asked?

Zentangle

This isn't really about me, directly, but it's more of a philosophy of mine.  I really believe that anyone can create art and create "good" art at that.  I think a lot of people who don't think of themselves as creative or artistic give up on themselves before they even try.  I've had students who thought they couldn't create "good" art because they viewed themselves as very math, science, or engineering-focused, but once I was able to help them to consider the ways that art can and does intersect with other disciplines, and help them to understand that everyone can learn to be more observant, they often find that they can turn their "technical" minds and skills toward art and create some amazing work.  In short, if someone truly wants to learn to create art, then they can. 

Thank you for spending some time with me, Rob. This has been such a pleasure! Please come back whenever you have something to share with the ChC audience.