Community-Care, Ceramics And Creative Tenderness: Tanya Zal
ABOUT TANYA ZAL
“I’m Tanya (she/her) and I work with my hands. I create nice ceramic things to hold, and am also invested in helping folks feel held. I guess I work with my heart too. It’s all connected anyway. I’m still figuring out how to talk about the spaces I’m exploring, the work I’m doing, and the way it all overlaps.
While originally from upstate New York, I have spent the last decade in Austin, Texas. In addition to making ceramics, I also offer compassionate companionship as a full spectrum doula. My work and play are driven by a curiosity about what makes us feel held, and the things that we hold close. Exploring connection and engagement with ourselves and others. My ceramics are a celebratory investigation of the creative process, using color and personal iconography.”
1. What’s your day-to-day mantra?
Find gratitude. And be gentle with yourself.
2. Tanya Zal in 3 words (or emojis)?
🖐🌸🌀
3. What is your vision for your work? Life?
Welcome exploration, celebrate the creative process, connect more with myself and others, let go of expectations and let things be. Ceramics has been a way for me to do practice this in a really tangible way. And birth work too I think.
4. The thing you most wish for the world is…
More care and compassion towards ourselves, with each other, and for the natural world in which we are connected.
5. No. 1 muse?
The CLAY! In all its' soft, responsive goodness.
6. What’s the first thing you think of in the morning?
Breakfast
7. What was your childhood dream job?
I wanted to be an artist. Or a midwife (I watched all my mom's home birthing videos and would act out birth with my stuffed animals- lol). And wow, here I am!!
8. Favorite ceramics piece that you’ve made recently?
Lately I've been exploring more with glaze and soda firing. Such a delightfully surprising process! I made some flower tea cups with this method that I just fell in love with!
9. You want the future of Texas to look like...
Mutual aid, knowing our neighbors, taking care of each other.
10. How would you describe your creative and production process?
The creative process ebbs and flows. I have a sketchbook of ideas, and an IG album of saved images for inspiration. The sculpting process is really a collaboration between me and the clay. You can't force it. It is humbling, and also a good teacher of patience. I welcome things unfolding in ways other than planned. I don't work on the wheel and prefer handbuilding. I also work with a lot with liquid clay slip and plaster molds, which allows me a quicker production and more time to explore surface design. And marbling! Clay is a very versatile medium and there's a ton to explore at both the wet and dry stage which I find fascinating.
11. Currently reading…
RE reading Pleasure Activism by Adrienne Maree Brown. And I recently thrifted an old copy of The Massage Book by George Downing that's been fun. The illustrations are great!
12. What does a day in your life look like?
Breakfast, que-ing up some true-crime youtube videos, rolling out some slabs and painting some bisqueware while I wait for them to dry, mixing up colored slip and pouring some marbled pieces to use for decoration later. If I'm on call for doula support, I'm likely checking in with expecting folks to see how they are feeling, or might be getting ready to head to a birth. Later on if it's not toO HOT, I've been enjoying a walk to a park nearby in the evening. I like to stop at a corner store on my way and get a fancy soda to try. The past couple of days, I've discovered the show Dating No Filter, so there's been a lot of that too. The pandemic and moving my ceramic practice to my home has really allowed me to get comfy with my more introverted side.
13. Proudest personal or career milestone?
Selling a piece at my first art show, at Martha's Contemporary this past June.
14. Something new you’re trying?
Lamps!
15. Something you treasure?
My curiosity.
16. What would you love to see more of from small businesses like yours?
Creative critique groups. Places to share ideas and WIP and get feedback from other makers. Also, more resource sharing. There are enough amazon boxes and old chronicles for us all, let's stop buying new packaging please.
17. Best advice you’ve been given?
Make what you want to make. Share what you want to share. Stay in your lane. That I am worthy. I am enough.
18. What are you most excited about in life right now?
Sharing my ceramics, and receiving such wonderful support and appreciation. I feel vulnerable sharing things that feel so personal. It can make me anxious, but it's also really exciting!
19. How do you want people to feel when wearing one of your pieces?
I hope my ceramics bring as much joy to the hands and homes that hold them as they have brought to me while creating them!
20. What’s one thing you learned about yourself recently?
I'm braver than I thought. It's not that I'm unafraid (I AM!) but I'm grateful for my courage to explore new things and push the limits.
21. What's coming up next for your ceramics business?
I'd like to try making some small chairs. And after watching all of The Great Pottery Throw Down I decided someday I'm going to make my own toilet!
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