JOHN MAC KAH - Rapid River Magazine

R A P I D R I V E R A R T S
fine art
F o o d M u s i c W i n e
www.ashevillelyric.org
JUNE 4, 2011
Join us for a deliciously fun evening of international flavors served by
Asheville’s finest local restaurants. Enjoy a musical trip around the world
featuring a diverse operatic repertoire. Don’t miss this one-of-a-kind event,
one night only, at The Diana Wortham Theatre.
For tickets call 828-257-4530 or visit www.dwtheatre.com
Event Sponsors
INTERVIEW WITH
Steven
Forbes-deSoule
Steven Forbes-deSoule is known for
his colorful, one-of-a-kind raku vessels
and sculptures with beautiful and
unique glazed surfaces.
His ceramics are also part of
numerous corporate, private and museum
collections throughout the U.S., and in
Canada, Europe and Japan. He has been
featured in publications such as Ceramics
Monthly
magazine (May 1985), and books
such as Ceramics Spectrum, second edition;
Clay and Glazes for the Potter, third edition;
and Throwing on the Potter’s Wheel
by
Don Davis. He will also be featured in the
upcoming publication 100 Southern Artists,
due out later this year.
Forbes-deSoule held an Assistant Professorship
in Ceramics at Agnes Scott College
in Decatur, Georgia for six years. He also
taught weekly classes at Callanwolde Fine
Arts Center in Atlanta and at Odyssey Center
of Ceramic Arts after moving to the Asheville
area in 1981. In the last few years, he has
been teaching weekend and week-long workshops
at such places as Metchosin Summer
School for the Arts in Victoria, BC, Canada;
Pots and Paints near Los Cabos, Mexico;
John C. Campbell Folk School in Brasstown,
NC; Studio of the Woods in Kentucky; East
Tennessee State University; Georgia State
University; Arrowmont School of Crafts;
Miami of Ohio University; and the Spring
Island, SC Art Center. He recently had a solo
exhibition of his raku at Burroughs-Chapin
Art Museum in Myrtle Beach, SC.
Raku pottery by Steven Forbes-deSoule
Rapid River Magazine: Tell us something
about your work and about Raku pottery.
Steven Forbes-deSoule: My work is both
wheel thrown and hand built. I develop the
recipes for all of my glazes, which give my
work its unique look.
RRM: What techniques do you use to
achieve your result?
SF: Many of my pieces are thrown and
INTERVIEWED BY DENNIS RAY
Steven Forbes-deSoule will open his studio
to visitors during the Weaverville Art Safari.
altered when still wet on the wheel. I glaze
by layering glazes using wax resist.
RRM: What are you major influences?
SF: I’m influenced by what I see everyday,
especially the ever changing faces of mothernature.
RRM: When did you first realize that you
were going to be an artist, when did you first
start making art, and at what point did you
realize that it was going to be something that
you would pursue?
SF: After college and the Navy, I went to
work in the corporate world, which I soon
learned to dislike very much. After quitting
my brief, second corporate career, I returned
to college and just happened to take a ceramics
class. 5 years later, I received my Masters
of Visual Arts from Georgia State University
in Ceramics and the rest is history.
RRM: What have you been working on lately?
Are you experimenting with anything new?
SF: I’m making discs that are influenced by
“flying saucers,” which can either be hung
on the wall or used on horizontal surfaces as
boxes. I’m always experimenting with new
glazes.
RRM: Looking back, knowing what you
know now, is there anything that you would
do differently?
SF: I would have started much earlier.
RRM: Can you teach somebody to be an artist
or is it an innate ability?
SF: I believe we are all born with the ability
to be an artist (or anything else for that matter).
Unfortunately, our education system
focuses on left brain pursuits—reading,
Continued on page 20
4 May 2011 — RAPID RIVER ARTS & CULTURE MAGAZINE — Vol. 14, No. 9