Homegrown: Interview with Courtney Zimmerman
Meet Courtney Zimmerman! She is a local ceramics artist who specializes in colorful mugs & house plant pots! I absolutely love her and her work!! I’m so excited to be featuring her house plant pots at the garden center this spring!!
What made you get into ceramics?
In the beginning of my sophomore year of college (2012), I had the job as a gallery watcher just to make a little bit of money while I was gong to school for Art Therapy at Millikin University. At the time, ceramics professor Jim Schietinger oversaw changing out the gallery exhibits and while I was in there one day, he was putting up the next show. I offered to help set up. After that he told me I had a very good work ethic and offered me the studio assistant job in the ceramics building. So because I got the job, I was able to learn how to make the studio clay, glazes, learn to fire the kilns and all the ins and outs of clay before ever taking a ceramics class. From then on I fell in love with clay.
What do you love about it?
I love how versatile yet complex of a material it is. You can make anything from a pinch pot to a human sized sculpture and beyond. But, without the right amount of knowledge and practice, your piece can crack, blow up in a kiln, over fire, etc. Clay teaches patience and teaches you to be okay with trying again. Clay pushes me to continually grow and I love it for that.
As for my work, it has changed a lot over the years. For a while I felt that I had to make work that spoke to the masses rather than to a specific customer. I felt I had to use neutrals/browns. Not to hate on a brown mug, some potters make amazing mugs that are brown, but it's not really my thing. I finally realized that in order to really love what I was doing, I needed to make work that I would want to buy. So I said goodbye to brown and hello to rainbows.
My goal with every piece I make is to be technically well made and to bring joy to your every day routine. I want my customer to take my mug off their shelf in the morning and have their coffee taste better because they drank it out of my mug or feel like their plants are happier because they have a beautiful home in one of my pots. This may sound materialistic, but I truly believe that your environment has a huge part to do with your daily happiness. And especially in this last year when we’ve all been stuck at home. Our homes have been our main base; our safe haven. Let's make our surroundings beautiful all the way down to the mugs we drink out of and the pots we put our plants in.
What’s inspiring you right now?
Currently, I am super inspired by the arrival of spring and summer. Lots and lots of color, anything that sparkles, all of the flowers, aerial landscapes, fashion, patterns, rainbows. These are all things that bring me happiness.
I can’t wait to show you her incredible work! Her planters will be available on April 12 at our Spring Opening Day!
Have a great day!!