Red Lodge Clay Center, Short-Term Resident 2011
Jeremy R. Brooks was born in Detroit, MI in 1979. He received his BFA from Grand Valley State University & MFA from Alfred University. Jeremy has balanced his career between working as an artist & teaching. Some of his honors include receiving the emerging artist award from the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts (NCECA), being selected as a guest of honor at the XXIst International Biennial of Vallauris, France, & being selected as a finalist for the 2017 Elizabeth R. Raphael Founder’s Prize. Jeremy is currently an Assistant Professor of Ceramics at Coastal Carolina University and resides in Conway, SC.
I make small batches of elastic clay fiber in a lab using a combination of traditional & nontraditional ceramic materials. This elasticity allows me to work in ways that would not be possible with traditional clay. I use this elastic clay to knit & crochet work in the form of small vessels & refer to this series as “Knot Pots”, which is a homophonous play on words. Structurally these “pots” begin with a slip knot of elastic clay fiber which is then knitted & crocheted into the form of a vessel. Categorically however, they are not pots in a strict utilitarian sense. They are more accurately categorized as vessels that conceptually focus around how a pottery form contains an idea rather than how they facilitate a specific function. The small scale format of a tea bowl & its relationship to Wabi- Sabi philosophy / aesthetics are conceptual aspects tied to the work.