Jeremy Randall, a ceramicist from Tully, New York, visited Oswego State Sept. 25 as part of the Visiting Artist Series, where he emphasized the importance of telling stories and conveying complex texture through objects.

His presentation, held at 6 p.m. in the Marano Campus Center auditorium, displayed pictures of some of his pieces and the real-life places that inspired them. He also played a couple videos of him throwing clay onto surfaces to imprint the texture onto the material to use later.

Randall, who earned his Bachelor of Fine Arts from Syracuse University and Masters of Fine Arts from the University of Florida, said much of his work displayed in galleries throughout the country is inspired by everyday textures and color pallets that are often overlooked by others.

“I like to look at surfaces,” Randall said. “I like to look at how weather affects surfaces—the way that the natural elements will start to corrode, invade, break down—and look to those things for clues that I can have to include in the work.”

Randall’s work is largely made using handbuilding, an ancient pottery-making technique that omits the use of a pottery wheel in favor of hands, fingers and simple tools.

He said that he often feels a personal connection to his work because of an early fascination with the history of objects and the stories they convey, which has given him a respect for old, weathered objects and surfaces.

“I don’t try to make things look like other things, but the things that I love looking at work their way into my brain so strongly that I can’t help but put out things that have that sense of age and time and use and wear,” Randall said.

Students from assistant professor Renquian Yang’s ceramics course attended Randall’s presentation, along with some staff members from the art department. Yang said that her class’s focus on handbuilding, along with the fact Randall lives close by and owns his own studio, made him the perfect fit to present for her class both at the Sept. 25 main event and Sept. 26 demonstrations.

“He focuses a lot on functional object[s], which is a main interest for our ceramic students,” Yang said. “There’s a lot there hopefully students can relate it to.”

Yang said Randall’s use of everyday objects as sources of inspiration can help her students explore other options for muses when they are looking for ideas on their projects.

“Everyone, right now, is at a point where they’re finding inspiration through assignments. They don’t necessarily find things through their own life experience or story,” Yang said. “I think all those opportunities [for them to see his work] are going to be really good for our students.”

In addition to telling stories, Randall’s pieces are often of functional objects that do not work in a typical fashion, like a teapot with a 2-foot-long spout. He said this technique is meant to make people reconsider the objects they use and what significance they hold.

“You don’t take an awful lot of time anymore to go through the ritual of making, even if it’s just making tea,” Randall said. “To make something that then can cause you to slow down and pay attention, I find it really important.”

Residence Hall Director Anneke Darling, a staff member taking Yang’s ceramics class, said she enjoyed the presentation because it opened her eyes to different techniques and inspiration and encouraged her to look deeper at seemingly insignificant things.

“The colors, the textures, showed me a lot than can be done with hand-molding than I maybe considered before,” Darling said. “It showed a value of history in a way and in the world …[and] we don’t take much time to really consider these things.”

Randall said he hopes viewers and students will form a similar personal relationship with his work so they remember the experience long after viewing it.

“I want there to be a connection. I like to figure out ways in which I can trigger memory, experience, through an object,” Randall said. “I’m always in the pursuit of magic.”

Image from Ceramics Arts Daily via YouTube