Issue link: http://maconmagazine.uberflip.com/i/1302793
What's your favorite thing you've ever created? Hold on, let me check my next kiln load! It's hard to have a favorite child. Sometimes a piece just works, and sometimes I keep that piece for myself! What are you trying to communicate with your art? The rhythms and geometry of the natural world. I want people to notice the math in nature. I love Fibonacci sequences, tessellations and fractals. I have always found repetitive patterns soothing and reassuring. It is amazing to me that those things are a foundational language of the universe. Which creative medium would you love to pursue, but haven't yet? Clay is that medium; I spent the first half of my life in textiles. I didn't start clay until I was 41. But sometimes I think about glasswork. They achieve extraordinary colors because they work at much lower temperatures. More than a few ceramicists have switched to glass. What's the best advice you ever received about how to be more creative? Talent is nothing without drive. You have to keep working. You can't wait for inspiration. You have to find it in the work. If you're in a drought, try something different to shake it up. But you just have to plow through it. Who is your favorite artist, and what draws you to them? Johannes Vermeer. In the late 1980s and '90s I lived near D.C., and went to the National Gallery whenever I could. One of the shows was a large retrospective of Vermeer. It was an extraordinary experience. People were openly weeping while walking around the gallery. Seeing that many Vermeers in one place was already moving, but their reactions were even more moving. I still get goosebumps thinking about it. What is your dream project? Honestly, it is the body of work I have right now. It took me seven years to find my voice in clay, and for everything to come together--the chemistry, the thermodynamics, the materials handling, the integration of glaze with form. It arrived one day about two years ago, in one really good kiln load. On that day I had 90 percent success and 10 percent failure, rather than the other way around. That single moment has been carrying me along for the last two years. I'm very thankful for it. Above: Holly Polich adding details to her work 5