The Mosaic Life

Reviving the Spirit of Asheville's Ceramics Community

• Laura Wagenknecht • Season 3 • Episode 31

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Creativity Unleashed: How Asheville's Artists Are Rebuilding After the Storm

Hurricane Helene couldn't extinguish the creative fire of Asheville's artists. On The Mosaic Life, we talk with ceramic artist Kelsey Schissel about her journey, the impact of the storm, and the inspiring ways artists support each other.

Discover the "Come Hell or High Water" studio tour, an innovative initiative to help artists recover and thrive. We'll explore the power of community, resilience, and the unwavering spirit of creativity.

This episode will leave you feeling inspired and empowered. Tune in and discover how you can be a part of the rebuilding process.

Support Asheville's artists! We're so close to our goal!

Visit https://gofund.me/fa90e8aa to donate to Plays in the Mud Pottery to help support local artists. 

A Mosaic is a bunch of pieces, put together, to make up the whole in a beautiful way. Here at Mosaic Business Consulting we discuss the various pieces of a business throughout the course of its life, and throughout all industries, and how these pieces, when put together, can help develop a better, more efficient, and effective running of YOUR business.
Find our more or register for a course today: Mosaic Business Consulting

Be sure to visit BizRadio.US to discover hundreds more engaging conversations, local events and more.

Speaker 1:

Good morning. I'm your host, laura Boggenknecht, owner of Mosaic Business Consulting, and you're listening to the Mosaic Life. A mosaic is a bunch of pieces that, when put together, make up the whole in a really beautiful way, and this show plans to discuss the various pieces of a business throughout different industries and how these pieces, when put together, can help develop a better, more efficient and effective running of your business. So to reach me, contact bizradious. Today my guest is Kelsey Schissel, and I am just thrilled to have her on the show. She's a ceramic artist based in Asheville, north Carolina, and the founder of Plays and Mud Pottery, a studio and gallery on Haywood road. With almost two decades of experience working with clay, kelsey creates both functional and sculptural ceramic pieces, which I'm kind of curious about. Functional and sculptural that's kind of interesting, but it is so great to have you on the show, kelsey. Thank you so much for showing up and thank you for your willingness to be a guest on the show.

Speaker 2:

Oh, thank you so much, Laura. It's a pleasure to be here.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and so I am kind of wondering what got you into ceramics to begin with, because people can go into all sorts of art formats and mediums and you choose ceramics and you choose working with clay, and so curious what prompted that.

Speaker 2:

So I have a really great origin story. My story begins when I was just a young, tiny little person. My father, lyle Wheeler, is a master woodworker and blacksmith, and so I grew up using handmade objects in everyday lives and having a deep appreciation for them. And when I was young third grade-ish, so eight, nine somewhere in there my father took me to a show outside of Boone, north Carolina, and Glenn and Lula Bullock were there demonstrating pottery. Lula was outside on the kick wheel and I peppered her all day long with questions, and at a certain point she asked me if I wanted to sit up on the potter's wheel and touch the clay. So I said of course, and I sat up there. She kicked the potter's wheel because my little legs were not long enough to go down all the way, and I can remember it. I remember reaching my hand out and touching the clay as it's moving on the potter's wheel, and it was just like my soul became electrified and I knew that that's what I wanted to do with the rest of my life. So I have dedicated I've dedicated my life to being a ceramic artist and it's been very fulfilling. And that's how I've dedicated my life to being a ceramic artist and it's been very fulfilling and that's how I've ended up here in.

Speaker 2:

I graduated in 2003 with a BFA in ceramics from UNC Asheville. I set up my pottery studio in the River Arts District. I survived the first flood of the River Arts District because I was on the second floor of the Candle Factory where the Village Potters is now. So I was up on the second floor so I didn't have the heartbreak then. And then I bought a house and moved my studio to the backyard. We built a studio in the backyard there In 2009, I founded Blaze and Mud Pottery and in 2012, I was accepted into the Southern Highlands Craft Guild as a member there and I have opened my gallery in 2021. I opened the gallery on Haywood Road in West Asheville. So that kind of brings us up to the present time.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and so you chose ceramics because it just fits you, but there are a lot of different approaches to ceramics. What is it that you do with ceramics? How is your product differing from others?

Speaker 2:

Okay. So my product is uniquely is unique in the fact that it I only use two colors. I use a blue and a green on the outside. I use a light blue on the inside and it is absolutely distinct. So if you are in Maine or California and you see my pottery out once, you see it there. If you've seen me and you've seen my pottery once, you can easily recognize it again. It's distinct because of the colors and also the patterns that I place on the surface of the pieces. I use small handmade stamps that I make a design and I apply one small stamp at a time on the surface of the piece, apply one small stamp at a time on the surface of the piece. So these designs are unique to me. There's no other potter that's going to have them because they come out of my own imagination.

Speaker 1:

Oh cool, that is really neat, wow, well, so excuse me, I will cut that out. I'm curious when you're dealing with the, you talk about the flood, you know, and the first one you survived. That was quite a while ago, but then recently, Asheville has experienced real big trauma, if you will, with Hurricane Helene. What has been your experience with that and where are you at in reference to the hurricane?

Speaker 2:

and such Well. I have been fortunate. My studio is in West Nashville and it is on Haywood Road and we are on a hill. We are significantly higher than the River Arts District and Biltmore Village, and so my experience with Hurricane Helene has been almost as an outsider still living through it, but as an outside artist viewing what's happened.

Speaker 2:

I rode down to the River Arts District on Saturday, the 27th. My husband and I are avid cyclists and so, rather than taking a car out and around, we rode our bikes and we rode down to the River Arts District on the Haywood Street Bridge, going across from West Asheville, and and it was heartbreaking, it was absolutely heartbreaking. I know the people that I could see the Village Potters and I could see Curb Studios and I could see the top of Second Gear and I could see how they weren't gonna, that everything was gone and like the buildings were there but the windows were gone, the rain was, or the water was so intense that was just moving through the buildings and moving things moving, just destroying people's studios. And On the ride back, after viewing that devastation, I realized that the way I can contribute is to open my studio to potters that have lost everything.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, what does that mean?

Speaker 2:

Open your studio up. So I have a full studio, I have two large kilns, I have five pottery wheels, I have a slab roller and an extruder and I have space. And so when I talk about opening it up, I'm going to change and rearrange my studio, I'm going to put some things in storage and I'm going to open it up so that potters that have lost their entire studio can come in and work and not have any upfront cost of having to create another space for themselves. It is not a permanent solution, but it is a temporary solution to get them back up and able to produce pottery immediately without having the upfront costs of anything. So any potter that comes into my studio will not have to pay anything. There'll be no monetary barrier for them to come in and work.

Speaker 2:

I started a GoFundMe campaign to help pay for all of the clay and glazes and tools that they will need, and so my GoFundMe campaign is Relief for Asheville Potters, a Hub of Recovery, and I've raised over Can you say that again Relief, yep, relief for Asheville Potters, a Hub for Recovery, and it is on GoFundMe and it is on GoFundMe and that money that. So I budgeted out. So I budgeted it out so that there's $12,000 that I'm asking for. I've raised just about $7,000 so far in just over a week.

Speaker 1:

Wow, I know that's fantastic.

Speaker 2:

It is. I've been blown away by people's generosity and their support for this so wonderful. Every, every artist that comes in here will have enough money to buy them 500 pounds of clay, at least three glazes that they need to have in order to create their work, and then all of their tools. So we'll be able to replace all of the tools that they lost and get them just up and running immediately. So once we get things rearranged next week, people can just come in and start working.

Speaker 1:

Do you need volunteers to help you move stuff? Will that be advantageous?

Speaker 2:

That's not going to be advantageous, because what's going to need to happen is I have someone who's going to be able to put some stuff in storage, and I've already got a volunteer to move the pieces that need to go into storage. But we have to work together as a group and plan out how things are going to move and flow in the studio. It's going to be a major upheaval of the space that's here and a major rearrangement, and that's something that we're personally going to have to work out amongst ourselves and sit down and think about where things are going to move to and what it's going to look like.

Speaker 1:

And how have you been able to get the word out to the artists themselves, to the potters, to see if they want to partake?

Speaker 2:

So a lot of it's just word of mouth, because there's not a lot of internet right now. And so I've done. I contacted the village potter, sarah Rowland-Wells, with the Village Potters and I let her know what I wanted to do and she put me in contact with the Village Potters manager and Kira. And then Kira has put me in contact with other artists that need space. I contacted and I know a lot of potters contacted and I know a lot of potters, so I've just been calling them and saying, hey, look, I have this space, that this is something that you're interested in, let's meet, let's let you see it and see what what's going to work for you. And so it's basically just been word of mouth. I posted it on Facebook and a couple of different areas pardon me, pages on Facebook, but mainly it's been word of mouth.

Speaker 1:

That's fantastic. I just can't you know. It goes to this whole scenario with Hurricane Helene that it takes a village, in a sense, to build community and I can't get over how effective the community has been and how everybody seems to have come together and to really support one another.

Speaker 1:

And this is just such a wonderful gift you're offering these folks to help support their businesses, but to rebuild. And I think you and I've chatted about it before. But when you're creating something, versus when you've maybe bought a product and you're reselling it or something like that, it's coming from the person, it's coming from their heart, from their mind, from their creativity and imagination and from their soul, you know. So to me it feels a little bit different and they want it. As if that was wiped away and now they have to rebuild. How do you rebuild you?

Speaker 2:

one pot at a time, it sounds like it is one pot at a time, but it's also letting go. There's a morning period and it's a heartbreak because we have put our heart and soul into a lot of these pieces and then now they're gone. And it's Not for me personally, but I can speak to having to let that go and the heartbreak that it feels of the actual mourning and release and the grief that's associated with all those pieces being destroyed all at one time. And so once we've moved past that, we can then start the making process again, and once we've grieved those pieces, we can move on.

Speaker 2:

I wanted to touch back to what you were saying about community and coming together, because I spoke to Kristen Benyo Also, kristen Schoonover is how I met her, but Kristen Benyo of Benyo Pottery and I said, kristen, this is what I'm doing. I want to open up my studio, but not only do I want to open it up, I want to create a hub for that recovery. So if what I want to do is, I wanted to make a website that would, if you have and if you need, so, if you are an artist that has space, then we need to pair you with an artist that needs space or needs kiln firings, because there's different types of firings so we don't all do the same. We might all work with dirt real fancy dirt and real fancy mud but it doesn't always. We don't always fire it the same. What we do to it is different, and so what might work in my firings is not going to work for some of the other artists that are coming in here. So I fire in an oxygen rich environment, which is an electric kiln and an oxidation kiln. But some potters fire to a higher temperature in a reduction firing, so they actually reduce and they take out the oxygen as opposed to putting in the oxygen. So the glazes go through a different chemical change and so we need to pair the artists with the firing and create that.

Speaker 2:

So Kristen said I have this, I have this plan, we can do this, and so on benyopotterycom you can go to a tab that says artist helping artists. So again, that's benyopotterycom and it's artist helping artists, and on that page there's a Google doc, there's a tab that you fill out. So if you have space, if you have kilns, if you have wheels that you want to lend or can do firings for, then potters can fill that part out and if you need, then you can also fill out the form for what you need, and then we can pair people together. There's also Jenna Jenna Gillinger.

Speaker 2:

Her website is handmadeforhealthcom, and what that is doing is that is, pairing potters that need with potters that are helping. So if you're donating 10% of all of your sales for the month of November to a specific potter, or if you are a potter that needs, then you can go on there and fill out the form and be paired with another potter to help raise money for what you need. And then the other thing that I'm working on, that is a. It's going to be a big undertaking.

Speaker 1:

You're in the wheels turning on this one.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, this is a big undertaking, but I think I've got enough people involved in it that I can say look, I have this idea, we need to make it happen and I think we can probably do it. So it's going to be. It's called come hell or high water, a studio tour supporting the artists of western north carolina, so all the artists that have studios that would otherwise be doing shows, because this is our busiest.

Speaker 2:

our busiest time is right now yeah and this is where we make all the money and we save all the money to go through december or january, february, march and then into april.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and without these shows, without the income, it's going to be incredibly hard to get through January, february and March of this coming year of 2025. And so, come hell or high water studio tour supporting the artists of Western North Carolina. It's going to be a self-guided studio tour running from the 1st of December to the 8th of December, for an entire week and artists that participate. It's going to be self-guided. So what that means is there's going to be a website with a PDF that you can print out for your area. So if you live in Maggie Valley and you want to support the artists in Maggie Valley or Highlands or Waynesville or Mars Hill or anywhere that has that's been affected, yeah, then you can go to this, go to this website or tab, whatever it's going to be. Right now, there's a page on my website, playsinmudcom, and it will link you with a pdf or a map of all the artists in your area nice.

Speaker 1:

So who's making the pdf?

Speaker 2:

well, I'm gonna get. So. There's gonna be a form that people fill out on my website. They're gonna give me their the name of their studio and if they don't have a studio and they need to collaborate with another artist, then there might be one artist that has five or six different artists in their space for that week selling their work, and it'll be so.

Speaker 2:

The artists are going to give me the information and then I'm just going to plug and play on the page and we're going to do it. There is going to be a fee. It's going to be $25 per person and that's just going to go toward marketing that entire budget. We might get 30 or 40 people that participate and each person pays $25. That gives us a great marketing budget.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, sure does. That's wonderful. That's fantastic. I just love the forethought you have, because I think that's the other part that people aren't understanding. They're thinking that people are going to get back on their feet because, well, the storm is over, Things are being cleaned up, they're getting their power back, they're going to get their water back and things are going to be and it's. It's like how long does it take to make one piece of pottery? It might take how long.

Speaker 2:

Weeks. It takes weeks. It might take a month to make one piece of pottery Exactly.

Speaker 1:

And so thinking about, yeah, you're coming up onto your busy season of holiday season, of sales going through the roof during that time frame, right, and here you are with no inventory, and so these people are going to need support through the rest of October, november, december, january, february, march. I mean that's six months of desperately needing help just to survive and build that inventory back. And so I really love what you're offering as far as all the different avenues that people can pair up and people can donate and support the creative element that is so beautiful and so strong in our community and really helps define Asheville in so many ways. Right, all of Western North Carolina, really, yeah, and well, I just I love what you're offering there. But I am kind of wondering, you know, if to remind people if they want to give to your GoFundMe page it is relief, something.

Speaker 2:

It is relief for Asheville Potters, a hub for recovery.

Speaker 1:

Great, okay, and then if they want to get in touch with you for your what do you call it for your website and how can you contact me?

Speaker 2:

My website. So there's a link to the GoFundMe from my website. There's a link to everything that we've just talked about on my website, and my website is playsinmudcom. Okay, it's all one word. It's P-L-A-Y-S-I-N-M-U-Dcom, and on the front page there on the first tab next to home so it's the second from the left tab there's a drop down the menu. It says I think it's helping western north carolina artists and it has a link to all the things. So there's kristin benio beniocom. Her website is. There's a link there. So if you have an artist that needs and an artist that wants to help, handmade for help is also there, and then come. Pillar high water water studio tour is also there. And then there's a link for tool donations. If you want to donate tools, you can send it here or drop it off, and then there's a yeah, I think that covers everything that's on the website.

Speaker 1:

That is fantastic. Well, I just can't thank you enough for taking time out of your obviously very busy schedule. I love everything you're trying to do here for the community. It warms my heart. Thank you so much. Oh, thank you, and I know that people are going to really want to give and support this effort. It's just fantastic. So, thank you, thank you, and I hope we can have another interview that talks more about your business journey in the future, but I think this was so much more important right now. So thank you very, very much.

Speaker 2:

Thank you so much for having me, Laura. It's been a pleasure speaking with you.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, same here, well, and I want to thank you the audience, for listening me. Laura, it's been a pleasure speaking with you. Yeah, same here, well, and I want to thank you the audience, for listening to the Mosaic Life. You can listen to this episode again and get this great content, or listen to other great hosts and their shows by going to bizradious and click on shows. Thanks so much for listening and have a great rest of your day. Don't forget to donate to GoFundMe.