Ceramics with Billy Ritter
“The clay holds the memory.” - Billy Ritter, potter
A step out of usual practice can create new connections and pathways. Cleveland, Ohio based potter Billy Ritter supports this evolution of the creative spirit by offering workshops in his studio. In May 2022 I felt a call to spend some time in an unfamiliar creative encounter. I signed up for a workshop. I brought a loose idea with me, along with some sketches. I had a memory of a bowl that belonged to my grandmother - it had shallow depth and small, stone-like textures in the center that reminded me of shapes that I like to paint in two dimensions. I was curious to see how these might activate when brought into a sculptural format. Billy and I agreed that my ideas aligned with a slab building process, and that we could allocate time on the wheel for a future project.
Shortly before the lockdowns of 2020, I acquired my first piece of Billy Ritter 77 pottery: a pink-glazed coffee mug that, over subsequent months, became an object of comfort. Its color reminded me of creative possibility and its form created a connection to the person who shaped it by hand. Since then my collection of Billy’s pottery has expanded to include bowls, trays, younomi (handle-less teacups) - items that I use and love every day. Billy’s playful yet masterful approach is imbued in his work, in which both curiosity and technique play supporting roles, and is evident in the joyful life experiences he shares on Instagram.
In this encounter, I was able to see connections between the painting and slab building processes. Billy’s assertion, “the clay holds the memory,” has stuck with me. I understand the memory also exists in the textures of drying paint that record moments of movement as the diluted pigments pool together and separate at intervals, collect along a constructed line, or wildly circumnavigate a hidden texture in the background below. The experience with clay, an unfamiliar medium, brought me into presence with it - and brought with it a deeper resonance in my painting practice.
