{"id":3484,"date":"2016-08-17T13:07:05","date_gmt":"2016-08-17T17:07:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/contemporarycraft.org\/?p=3484"},"modified":"2016-08-17T13:07:05","modified_gmt":"2016-08-17T17:07:05","slug":"meet-a-maker-matt-dercole","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/contemporarycraft.org\/meet-a-maker-matt-dercole\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet A Maker: Matt Dercole"},"content":{"rendered":"
Meet a maker: Matt Dercole from West Hartford, CT.<\/p>\n
The Studio is excited to welcome visiting artist Matt Dercole who will teach “Sculpting Small Animals with Clay” workshop on Saturday and Sunday, September 10 – 11, 2016. Read on to learn more about the artist’s process and inspiration in creating his emotive and curious critters<\/p>\n
Matt Dercole (MD): I took a sculpture class in undergrad and one of the assignments was to make something out of clay. I never worked with clay before that and basically just really enjoyed the way the material was able to be handled and manipulated. I became a ceramics major after my first clay class my sophomore year and have been working with clay since. My professor was somewhat hands off (I don’t mean this in a bad way), but I feel that it allowed me to explore the material without limitation or be bound by the endless rules of ceramics classes. <\/em><\/p>\n I had few rules to follow in my learning of clay, so I was able to approach it from multiple directions. After undergrad, though, I didn’t touch clay for three years. I love drawing and painting, but I really missed working sculpturally, specifically with clay. He was very supportive of me and helped me to challenge myself in the studio and he helped me get into grad school. I worked with a great group of grad and undergrad students at the University of Iowa who helped push my techniques and ideas. I think getting back into sculpting after three years and working with that group of people was incredibly helpful to give me a better direction with my studio practice and professional endeavors.<\/em><\/p>\n