Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Maya Champion. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Maya , appreciate you making time for us and sharing your wisdom with the community. So many of us go through similar pain points throughout our journeys and so hearing about how others overcame obstacles can be helpful. One of those struggles is keeping creativity alive despite all the stresses, challenges and problems we might be dealing with. How do you keep your creativity alive?
I keep my creativity alive by finding inspiration everywhere I look. In constantly nudging myself to look up and to look down more. To try to find new things in my routine. To notice colors and shapes, new buildings on my every day walk, to push myself to slow down. When you slow down you can process so much more around you.
Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?
I am a ceramic artist that makes all hand sculpted pieces, I use only about three tools, I often only use a sponge and challenge myself to use just my hands for the rest. This makes my work unique, I like to leave as much of my hand on the pieces as possible. You can often see my finger prints, the veins from my palm, slight imperfections that I refuse to clean up. This comes from my own desire to own pieces that you can see and feel the hand that created them. I am drawn to neutral colors when I design interiors, so I’m always surprising myself with the patterns and bright colors I gravitate towards. Having spent the last eight years in Los Angeles where for the longest time was glorifying beige, I believe I started craving more life, more hues that you would see in nature.
I have a collection of large scale forms that I am nearly finished with that will be online mid October! As well as a few drops leading up to holiday.
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
The first area that I would emphasize its importance in my journey would be the bit of knowledge to always be a student. I am not sure I believe in being a master potter. This came from my time at the first studio I was ever a member at. I was surrounded by elders that were constantly teaching me openly, but even early on they were also curious to learn techniques that I developed. It came from an egoless space. Where they weren’t embarrassed or boastful or prideful. They were simply entrenched in the art form and excited to be in community with it.
Another piece of knowledge which doubles as advice, is about technique. I have had many teachers that have the “best” technique, the best teacher I had told me that the actual best technique is whatever works for you. This changed everything for me, I stopped trying to do everything the way that I was “supposed to” and I let my intuition guide me. This was the most expansive part of my journey.
The last piece of advice I’ve got would be to make art for yourself. That will be your most successful body of work. Art that feels good to you is the art that is needed. Sometimes we chase making things that will pay the bills. But I have found that the bills get paid tenfold when you’re chasing the weird thing you can’t get out of your head.
We’ve all got limited resources, time, energy, focus etc – so if you had to choose between going all in on your strengths or working on areas where you aren’t as strong, what would you choose?
I have had this conversation so many times in the last few months with fellow artists. I am quite a spiritual person and I do think that self awareness and an emphasis on self improvement, in ourselves and our work is crucial. An example in my work is that I wheel throw every few months even though I’m not nearly as strong at it as I am hand-building, because it stretches me. It makes me uncomfortable (often frustrated), yet I find inspiration in my discomfort. I’m a firm believer that most do. We are so used to quick dopamine hits that we have all teetered toward access to things that quickly make us feel good. I microdose uncomfortable situations, to try to be more adaptable. I think it’s a really important exercise for artists. I would challenge anyone reading this to write down areas of their work they find to be the weak points or the areas they outsource, and spend a little bit of time each week getting more comfortable (or even frustrated).
Contact Info:
- Website: https://Mfc.studio
- Instagram: @mfc.studio
Image Credits
Jake Kin took the photograph of me in my studio. The rest were all taken by me.
so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
