CHATTING WITH KATLEEN DUSTIN
You are an artist who has worked and excelled in the field of polymer clay with many personal exhibitions and several awards related to your work. Does this cause you any stress about what your next step will be, regarding the people that are following you?
Actually, no. Rather I am humbled by the recognition I have received over my career and it inspires me to continue to do new things. Something that I have realized about my work is that I don’t stay with one theme, style, or technique over time. I have had series called Village Women (after living in Turkey), Saints, Organic Pods (when we moved from living in cities to living in the forest), Modern Art or Layered Fragments, Winter (lots of snow where I live), and now Silk Road. These series are quite different from each other and it is risky to develop a whole new body of work. Especially when one body of work has become quite successful. But, I pay more attention to what I want to express than to what people want or what I think will sell well. And I’m the end, because my heart and soul is in my work, people see and feel that too, so my work sells quite well.
Most of us got to know Kathleen, through an innovative research that you did, to create useful objects other than jewelry. The bags you make are a unique piece of art that takes ones breath away with the detail and the impeccable finish they have. How did you get the idea to make these bags?
I have a Master of Fine Arts degree in ceramics and am very comfortable with the idea of containers and vessels. In the late 1980s – early 1990s, I became fascinated with polymer clay while working in ceramics and gradually moved completely into polymer. It honestly was an epiphany in the middle of the night when the idea of a purse out of polymer struck me. A ceramic purse would not be useful, but polymer is light weight and flexible. My ceramics had building skills enabled me to develop techniques for building a hollow form.
When you first got into polymer clay, did you have in mind that one day you would like to become a well-known polymer clay artist or is this something that came up along the way?
I just needed to make things personal to me that I hoped would also be beautiful. And notice that I said “needed”. I’ve been making things since being a little girl. After working with computers for a number of years while making things on evenings and weekends, I decided I wanted to work for myself and realized I could make a living with what I made. So I became an entrepreneur.
Your series called Silk Roads is based on the inspiration you get from designs that were imprinted on carpets, buildings and fabrics. How easy was the transition from inspiration to construction and completion of the project, and how many mistakes and failures can be “forgiven” until you reach the desired result?
My job as an artist, I think, is to pay attention so I’m always paying attention to everything around me. I have loved the intricate patterns and many colors of Islamic art since I spent a year abroad at the American University of Beirut, traveled throughout the Middle East, and lived in Saudi Arabia and Turkey (my husband’s job brought us there). I have quite a collection of carpets, kilims, and Bedouin jewelry all of which I see every day. So, my brain thinks in the terms of what inspires me and it is not difficult, but rather exciting to get a new idea and proceed to work out how to make it. I don’t do a lot of sketches as many artists do, but I do sit and think every day. I have a small sitting area in my studio with a nice window where I sit and think.
What advice would you give to a young artist working on this material now? Would you suggest to invest their time in personal practice or in attending seminars of various artists and through these to find their own style and way?
Both. I work very hard, all the time, and usually develop or invent a technique to get my idea across. But classes can also help with tips about how to do something so I wouldn’t have to figure it out. The primary thing, however, is that the techniques should serve an artist’s idea or concept. Art that is based on a technique can be good, but is usually shallow and can become meaningless so that the artist is just a machine making things over and over again. That’s not much fun to me. That’s not to say everything I do is one-of-a-kind, i make massive amounts of earrings, but my concept is what drives me.
Finally I would like to know, like many more of your fans I imagine, what are your plans for the near future in relation to the seminars? Are we expecting to see course announcements with Kathleen Dustin as a speaker?I love to teach, and am in fact beginning to do more teaching. Most of my income comes from selling my work at fine craft shows, but they are a lot of physical work and now that I am older, I’d like to slow those down. So, when travel restrictions open up, I’d like to do more. I’ve done one Zoom class and one in-person class since February, and I much prefer in-person. Zoom was OK, but it limits what I can teach.
More Katleen Dustin
