Ronan Kyle Peterson
BIOGRAPHY
Ronan Kyle Peterson grew up in Poplar, NC, a small community deep in the mountains of western North Carolina. He attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and in 1996 received a Bachelor of the Arts degree in Anthropology, with a minor in Folklore. He was a Core Fellow at Penland School of Crafts in 2000-2001, and has returned to Penland to teach Summer Session workshops. Currently, Ronan maintains Nine Toes Pottery, which produces highly decorative and functional earthenware vessels. His work has been featured in both Ceramics Monthly and Clay Times, and the books 500 Bowls and 500 Plates and Chargers. Recent exhibitons include solo shows at the Cedar Creek Gallery (NC) and Charlie Cummings Gallery (FL) and invitational shows at the Northern Clay Center as part of the American Pottery Festival 2020 and 2021, Akar Gallery Yunomi Invitational 2020, Worcester Center for Crafts in Worcester, MA, and the Carbondale Clay Center in Carbondale, CO.
ARTIST STATEMENT
Essentially, I am dealing with effects of agents of growth and decay and how these agents shape and embellish the surfaces of stones and the skins of trees. These agents also serve key roles in interacting with my ceramic vessels. Mushrooms, seed pods, grubs and other growths serve as knobs and handles, allowing one to remove lids and discover what might be inside or underneath a covered vessel, like lifting a rock to have insects scurry in many different directions when subjected to the light of day. The vessels are not intended to be actual representations of the trees and rocks, but abstractions and stylizations of these natural phenomena. Employing an earthy background palette stretched across textured but quieter surfaces, I wanted to upset that quiet earthiness with intense splashes of vibrant color, patterns, and glossy surfaces not commonly associated with tree bark or the rough surfaces of rocks amidst fallen leaves. I am interested in inflated volume and thick line qualities that reference comic style drawings and how that can apply to interpreting the natural world. With my ceramic vessels I hope to create a comic book interpretation of the natural world with a focus on the rocks and trees and their role in the perpetual organic comedy of growth and decay.
Q&A WITH THE ARTIST
Carbondale Clay Center (CCC): What’s your favorite beverage recipe?
Ronan Kyle Peterson (RKP): Basil Gimlet
3 parts gin (Bombay sapphire)
2 parts lime juice (fresh squeezed)
1 part simple syrup ( I infuse mine with basil)
7 basil leaves
Lime slice (for garnish)
Smack basil leaves (save 1 for garnish) between hands, place in glass jar and muddle with lime juice and simple syrup. Using martini shaker with ice in it, pour through strainer muddled basil lime and simple syrup mixture into shaker, add gin, shake vigorously. Pour shaker mixture through strainer into chilled ceramic or glass cup, garnish with lime slice and basil leaf (ribbons).
CCC: What keeps you inspired in the studio?
RKP: My biggest inspiration while working in the studio revolves around media outside of my own. Listening to familiar music can keep me engaged and working, but also leads me to discoveries of parts of songs and lyrics forgotten or misheard the first time around. Bill Callahan is my go to, for invigoration and exploring further, which a lot of times opens up ideas and directions in ceramics for me. Outside the studio, looking at as many illustrators, painters, and visual artists helps me develop new patterns or color combinations, and keeps me excited about all the possibilities of color, texture, pattern and line.
CCC: How do color, surface, and form influence your work? Does each of those design elements play equal roles in your making process? Is one emphasized over others?
RKP: It seems like the bulk of my work focuses on color and surface. How my surface fits my form, how it accentuates certain curves, swells, and depressions, is something I am constantly considering. For the longest time, I felt like I was hiding my form under patterns, contrasting surfaces, and textures, but somewhat recently, 10 years or so, I feel like I’m trying to simplify my forms and that I’m searching to clothe my forms as best I can to integrate patterns to form. With color, I am constantly shifting from highly contrasting hues to more subtle shifts from darker to lighter hints of the same part of the spectrum, aiming for a generous and positive offering in depth and saturation.