Michelle Erickson Ceramic Sculpture

“Michelle Erickson is internationally recognized for her mastery of lost ceramic arts during the age of exploration and colonialism. Her contemporary work makes use of these arcane ceramic techniques to create historical narratives about political, social, and environmental issues – past and present. Regardless of time frame, Erickson’s works are distinguished by insightful commentary on the universal character of the human spirit.”[i]

Foundations

Virginia-based ceramicist Michelle Erickson (American, b. 1960) attended the College of William and Mary receiving a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1982.[ii] She says her “frustration with painting drove [her] to try [her] hand in clay.”[iii] With a “bruised ego,” Erickson signed up for a ceramics class with professor Marlene Jack which she says “felt like…the island of misfit toys.”[iv] However, soon “[she] jumped in with both feet.”[v] Erickson had found a material that spoke to her and “there was no turning back.”[vi]

While at William and Mary, which is located near Colonial Williamsburg, Erickson was exposed to British pottery traditions and began creating reproduction works for Jamestown Pottery. Over time she became “increasingly interested in the ceramics that were found by archaeologists” in this history rich area of the country.”[vii] These discoveries, which ranged from Chinese porcelains to Portuguese delftwares, exposed her to different ceramic styles and techniques beyond the scope of what was covered in a traditional art history class.[viii] Erickson’s curiosity was peaked. She was particularly interested in how these objects were manufactured. This fascination with the “technologies and procedures…used hundreds of years ago” would ultimately impact Erickson’s career from that point onward.[ix]

Inspiration and Concentration

Erickson’s work has been largely influenced by “ceramic history during the period of Western exploration, expansion, and dominion.”[x]  British pottery traditions in particular have been a focus. Erickson has created works inspired by seventeenth and eighteenth century earthenware, soft-paste porcelains, and even Josiah Wedgwood’s jasperware.[xi]

While she continues to make reproduction pottery, Erickson’s contemporary designs blend lost “ceramic techniques with modern themes.”[xii] In essence, elements from the past and the present are often brought together in narratives with thought provoking comparisons. For example, in recent years Erickson has drawn parallels between “the eighteenth-century Staffordshire pottery industry and global design giant Nike” as well as “the colonial discovery and obsession with fossils” and “our perilous present-day addiction to fossil fuels.”[xiii]

Through her extensive research Erickson has rediscovered many historical techniques, clay bodies, slips, and glazes. It is important for her “to find the original language of the artifact itself to make a tangible connection to the present.”[xiv] However, she has admitted, “There’s more than one way to skin a cat.[xv]” Erickson understands that the true method of manufacture is probably unrecoverable. With her recreations, the hope is that she achieves a “‘kinetic’ understanding of the way that bygone potters practiced their craft.”[xvi]