Meet Danielle Wood, a ceramicist and ceramics teacher in the Valley.
She often uses the ocean as inspiration for her work, despite living and working in the desert. Wood joined The Show in her studio, surrounded by pieces she’s done and bags of clay ready to be turned into art, to discuss what first got her interested in doing ceramics.
Full conversation
DANIELLE WOOD: I got into ceramics — I was a painting and drawing major at Arizona State University. And I love to draw. And I loved art. And I took a ceramics class because I had a 3D credit, and I just fell in love with ceramics and just loved the three-dimensional quality of it, being able to sculpt, and for me it just felt like the right art for me.
MARK BRODIE: Did that surprise you at the time, given that you were interested in art, but a very different kind of art?
WOOD: It did surprise me because at that time, in my mind, I was thinking, “Well, I’m going to be an art major. I’ll be a painter. That is art, you know?” And so then becoming an art student, realizing, “Wow, there’s so many different subjects and mediums.”
So I had a friend that was a painter, and his sister was a ceramicist. And he also recommended it and was like, “You might like ceramics.” Just with some of the things that I like to do, it just could be a really great opportunity to try this medium and just see where it goes.
BRODIE: Was it the kind of thing that you immediately dove right in headfirst? I mean, you were coming from painting and drawing. Did you sort of, pardon the pun, dip your toe in the water a little bit? Or were you all-in right away?
WOOD: Well, it’s funny because a lot of times, when it comes to decisions, I think about these things a lot. And, it was one of those things that I did painting, and I loved it, and I felt like I was good at it. But when I started doing ceramics, it just felt like a language where it felt like I really love this, and I felt like I could truly express the things, my ideas in it.
And so after that first semester, I just noticed I was spending more time in the ceramics department than I was in the painting department. I still love painting. I still love drawing. And that’s something I love about ceramics is I can still explore color with ceramics. And so it just felt like for me, the ceramics really combined all the things I loved about art.
BRODIE: So how do you conceive of these? I know that the ocean is a big inspiration for you. How do you conceive of what specifically you want to do? Because that’s a pretty vast area that you can choose subjects from.
WOOD: That’s a really good question. For me, I’m very interested in a lot of times coral reefs and the smaller organisms. And so I love the ocean. And definitely when you look at my Instagram feed, there’s a lot of ocean forms on there.
But I love the corals because they call it the garden of the ocean. And so it really works with some of my forms, these little smaller pieces that I can recreate, like even these forms. There’s an algae called the mermaid’s wineglass. And so that was what started that trumpet shape for me. So yeah, I’m very interested in corals.
BRODIE: So I’ve got to ask, because we do not live near an ocean here: How do you try to get access to corals? I know you can obviously go online and see millions of images of them, but is it a detriment that it’s not just down the road or a short drive to go see the ocean or even sit by the ocean?
WOOD: Whenever I do vacations, a lot of times I’ll go by the water. But also in grad school, I was studying a lot of different forms from the ocean, and so a lot of that just comes back in my memory of things that I really was drawn to. But also, yeah, I think a lot of my early childhood experience of just going to the ocean.
And then I’ve also done snorkeling in different spaces like Hawaii, and I’ve gone to the Grand Caymans and then snorkeling. So that’s another way that I kind of also recollect things that I’ve seen. So a little bit of everything.
BRODIE: Well, what is it about the ocean that speaks to you so much?
WOOD: I would say. Well, so when I was in grad school, my thesis was the ocean as a metaphor for the subconscious. And so it’s that idea. I think what I love is that it’s very mysterious. There’s a lot of surreal aspects to it, that it’s this liminal space where there’s so much unknown.
For us, I feel like the ocean is almost like space in that way, that there’s creatures and animals that we haven’t discovered yet. So there’s just so much mystery. And for me, the inspiration is endless in that way. So that’s what draws me to the ocean.
BRODIE: Well, as you were talking, the word mystery really popped into my head. I’m curious how you try to incorporate that into a sculpture.
WOOD: I like to — a lot of these will have holes in them, and I like that idea of the shadow, that it’s like there’s these kind of negative spaces. And so that’s something for me. And then also forms that are very abstract. So I’ve also, even as a painter, like I loved Georgia O’Keeffe’s work because it was very abstract and looking at nature.
And so I think for me, the mystery part is creating work that’s very unique. I like that idea of negative space and places where it leaves that up to the viewer to kind of look and want to get closer and investigate.
BRODIE: So when you are in the water or by the water, do you take photos? Do you just capture it all in your brain? How do you try to bring what you see when you’re in the water or near it back to your studio?
WOOD: That’s a good question. A little bit of both. I do, I’m constantly taking photos. So even on my Instagram, that’s a big part of my feed is just things that I’m inspired by, textures that I see. A lot of times they’re not in the ocean, but it’s just things that I love that have that symmetry and repetition.
And so I think that helps with the abstraction because some of this is coming from the ocean, but some of it is also in my everyday life, things that I like.
BRODIE: I’m curious, given the fact that you started out in painting and drawing and then seemingly fell in love with ceramics, do you look at other mediums or other art forms and maybe try to incorporate those as well? Because you went from one that you really liked to another that you seemingly like better. Do you think there’s maybe something you could like even better than ceramics, or maybe that you want to incorporate into your ceramics?
WOOD: Well it’s interesting, I taught a glass class. I teach at Glendale Community College and Shemer Art Center. And I taught a glass class at Glendale Community College. And so glass is something that I’ve been interested in. Like, I would love to take a class in glassblowing. So that’s been something I’ve been interested to combine with my work.
But I really love also just sculpture in general. But I’m also very safety conscious, so that’s like a big thing for me. Like, I’m all about — that was the tricky thing in classes. I was like, “OK, don’t get glass in my eye. That would be the worst.” …
The thing we are most careful in ceramics is dust. And so as long as that is taken care of and you’re wearing gloves while you’re glaze mixing, you’re good for the most part. And you’re careful around the kilns. That’s the other.
So yeah, I would say sculpture materials, some of these 3D printing — I’m really interested in that.
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