Q&A with Ceramicist Josh Herman
From March 28 through May 13, the gallery at La Jolla Country Day School exhibited the bold, beautiful and large-scale ceramic sculptures by ceramic artist and Country Day parent Josh Herman. “Stack Studies: An Exploration of Process” featured Herman’s newest body of work, where he uses natural forms and embraces the accidental. Onlookers visiting the lobby could not have missed this impressive exhibition. Below Herman reflects on his show and talks about life as an artist.
Q1: Stack Studies features large-scale ceramic sculptures, what inspired your new body of work?
Josh Herman: For the past few years, I have worked on cleaner more fluid forms. I wanted to return to textured, coarse and spontaneous forms that had been my focus when I first started working in clay. I have always been drawn to stacked forms but have never dedicated an entire exhibition to them. The clay has a language, a way of communicating its limitations and strengths, and I tap into that dialectic to bring the form to life. In considering the gallery space and the school environment, I was immediately drawn to a group of stacks to serve the space. It was a very natural and easy decision.
Q2: We talk a lot about the importance of mentors at LJCDS, who are your mentors and are there any artists whose work you take inspiration in?
JH: My biggest influence and mentor in ceramics was my teacher, Paul Soldner. Paul was the ceramics professor at Scripps College when I started studying clay, and I unknowingly stumbled into a program that was led by the man who is commonly referred to as “The Father of American Raku.” He was the kind of mentor that all the students wanted to be around; he taught through example, making his own work in the main studio, so we could all watch him work. Paul expressed freedom and experimentation, and it was this approach to working with clay that was so influential to me.
Other artists that inspire me are Peter Voulkos, Eva Hild, Barbara Hepworth and Isamu Noguchi. I do have mentors in my life, people who I know and value their expertise in areas that I seek guidance. I am not afraid to ask questions.
Q3: How has your practice changed over time?
JH: My practice is constantly changing. I work in different areas such as sculpture, pottery, design and architectural applications. Because of my various interests, I don’t have a grooved patterned way of working. My work is more of an ebb and flow. I respond to what’s in front of me. I experience periods of heavy unrestrained output and periods of a more inward focus with less actual making. Once an idea unfolds, my process calls for completion and there is little rest. Then there is recovery time and I begin again, ramping up for the next cycle of making.
Q4: Walk us through your typical day.
JH: I wake up at 6:30 a.m. and the house is alive with a cacophony of sounds coming from the kitchen, the kids, the dog and cat. I drive Gabi and Isaac to LJCDS most mornings, and we have a good time in the car together. They like to get to school by 7:30 a.m., so I’m at my studio in Barrio Logan by 8 a.m.
Mornings are the most productive for me. I briefly check my to do list, connect with Rachel about projects we have in the works, and then I consistently construct until lunch. I like to go out for lunch to take break from the intensity of the creative process. Some days I have design meetings, some days I’m running to Home Depot. Good days are when I leave the studio and head home to the garden in the late afternoon to spend an hour working before regrouping with my family for the evening.
The natural growth of my sculptures are inspired by and similar to the growth of the succulents and fruit trees that I tend. My sculptures have more of my energy and the plants are more of nature’s, but it is the same organic process that unfolds for each.
We try to have dinner together most nights. If I am lucky, I watch an hour or so of television. I’m immersed in Game of Thrones right now.
Share with us how you were able to connect and work with students in all divisions while your show was exhibiting in the gallery.
I met with several Lower School classes, the fifth grade and a seventh grade art class. I asked the students about what they were seeing and feeling and the discussions were quite lively. My sense was that they enjoyed seeing the exhibition, and they were quite curious. I enjoyed having a chance to discuss my process around making large scale work and to understand how the pieces were constructed.
Kids are in the moment and in tune with their feelings, tactile and emotional; they make a great audience for my work and tend to be more expressive than adults. You can see and feel when and how children respond to the work. It’s amazing to watch. I really enjoyed spending time with students. In fact, the exhibition is over, but I have one more visit scheduled to Ms.Owen’s JK class. The students made sculptures inspired by my work, and I’m looking forward seeing my work through their eyes.
Q5: What’s next for you?
JH: This is the conversation on a continual loop between Rachel and me. I want to continue focusing on my sculptural works and deepen that practice. My passion and abilities lie in creative work vs. repetitive work. Paul Soldner once told me, “When you are finished making something, start making the next thing. It doesn’t matter what it is, just keep making things.” So I am.
Bonus: If you could go anywhere, where would you go?
JH: I have always wanted to go Bora Bora and stay in a cabin that sits on stilts in the water. I love exotic places.
To learn more about Josh Herman and his work, please visit www.joshherman.com.
