In this month’s conversation, artists Stanley Greaves AA and Akima McPherson discuss Trevor Alfred’s pottery piece – Amerindian Hunter, which was completed in 1995. Amerindian Hunter is on show at the top floor of the National Gallery of Art, Castellani House.
Akima McPherson: As a sculptor, I like working with clay because of the ease in manipulating the medium and its versatility. Infrequently, I attempt to use it to make pottery. Pottery is the term applied to vessels (pots) made with clay and typically thrown on a wheel. Ceramic on the other hand could include pots or other objects fashioned from clay or another material, such as silica which changes permanently when heated. So pottery is a subset of ceramic but the two are not synonyms.
Stanley Greaves: You stated that pottery is typically thrown on a wheel, but hand building has a long history. Both techniques have existed together in the past and present. It took me a while to begin working in clay because in 3D,