Meet Ariana Kier | Ceramic Artist, Material Scientist and Teacher

We had the good fortune of connecting with Ariana Kier and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Ariana, what’s something about your industry that outsiders are probably unaware of?
Probably how much goes into using wild clays compared to commercial clays. Most people I talk with aren’t familiar with even the term wild clay. Wild clays are clays dug straight from the ground, with one source location, usually in small batches. Located through geology maps, research on the history of a specific area, and an understanding of the patterns of our natural environment.

Collecting and using clays from a range of counties, states and countries, is even more difficult, because it requires previous customized knowledge of all the sciences listed above, before the real work even begins. After narrowing down prospective locations for a good clay, I’ve got to trek into nature to (hopefully) confirm my findings. Once harvested, usually by hand, but sometimes with a small shovel, the clay has to be processed, removing branches, stones and other organic material that would cause the ceramic ware to explode in the kiln. Usually, with some understanding of geology, and local anthropology, you can get a feel of what temperature range the clay needs to be fired to to be no longer porous. Fired too low and the clay is weak, brittle and will seep water, fired too high and the clay will melt into a puddle, or begin to expand again after shrinking, then explode. The amount of other issues you can run into with a wild clay body is lengthy, too lengthy to include here, but requires a lot of knowledge and experience to mitigate.

A wild clay body goes through significant tweaking, and testing before the first piece is even made. I sometimes use store-bought porcelain to test clays on, and to create decorative contrast in some of the artistic work I make, but my goal is to eventually move away from commercial clays entirely. (A trip to Japan to collect materials for my own wild porcelain is in my dreams haha.)

There are many personal reasons I use wild clays: connection to place, a more intimate relationship with my material, and just a sheer curiosity for how these materials will behave when subjected to thousands of degrees in a kiln.

But what a non-potter, and a non-wild clay potter often doesn’t know is that the ceramics industry is a massive industry like any other. Nature pays for our convenience. Clays made in factories are a combination of many minerals and materials, mined from all over the country, or the world- depending on the clay body, to get a consistent product. When one mine empties, leaving the devastation of the natural environment behind, clay manufactures have to find another place to mine. When you take in the habitat destruction, the fuel used and carbon emitted to transport these bulky raw materials across far distances, ceramics becomes a less sustainable industry than you may have once thought. This isn’t to discount those using commercial clays. The lifespan and durability of ceramic-ware in the face of plastics is invaluable, certainly. If you have to buy a new cup- choose a ceramic one. But if you can, see if there is an artist in your area making pottery with local clays and materials, or better yet you can learn how to do it yourself! It is fun and rewarding, and gets you more in touch with your daily coffee or family meal than you could have ever imagined. My instagram inbox has become a haven of people learning to forage themselves, sending photos of clays for me to check out, questions they’d like answered, and I’m always happy to do so. Because I care about this practice, and the planet it supports.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
Olla Ceramics becomes more of a geology project than an art project with every passing day. With the years I’ve gathered as a ceramic artist, pots are the perfect vessels to run these tests of local materials on, and luckily, art will never run out of style, so people can buy them as well! That was the point of view I had when opening an online shop, a way to share the experiments I’ve made and give them exciting new homes. The intersection between scientific experimentation and artistic expression gets hazy- and that’s exactly where I like to be. Most of my “idols” are artist/scientists, Neri Oxman, Da Vinci, all indigenous communities, etc. are all geniuses in playing this middle field.

Pottery has been something that has helped me through processing much of what has happened in my personal life as an adult. As a teacher I’ve seen it do the same for so many others, when given support, motivation, and a space that nurtures connection. I’ve thought a lot about going back to school for a degree in art therapy. I think all of us are aware to some degree of how much art can alchemize emotions; for pottery it’s also into something physical, that we can touch and be proud of. I saw an artist who filled a wall sized frame three inches deep with clay and beat it with boxing gloves while blindfolded. That’s a profound example. Ceramics holds so much potential to me. It rules my life, really. Clay consumes most questions I ask about humanity, history and archeology throughout the day.

I’m lucky to have found it, it found me obviously, at a few years old- but still, I’m so happy to be able to share it through my wild clay workshops, my art, and even the private lessons I hold in my studio.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Las Cuatro Milpas in Barrio. I’d Uber straight from my flights landing from New York (back when I lived there) just to get in line for their burrito de pollo.

I don’t do much outside that’s unrelated to pottery honestly ahha, aside from enjoying the (close to my sleeve) nature spots that I grew up near, out in Descanso. I would certainly take any friends of mine visiting out towards Lake Cuyamaca and the Laguna Mountains. I tend to want to escort people myself so I can share the ways we take care of the land and tell the stories of the Kumeyaay who stewarded these places. It’s a special area to me, and if I just share location tags I don’t get the same opportunity to connect someone with the land. I fear that I’d return and through word of mouth, it would be trashed.

I love dancing to salsa at Cafe Sevilla. Anytime I’m downtown, which is rare, I try to rally whoever I’m with to go to the Spanish nightclub in their basement, or listen to the live music upstairs. San Diego is so close to the border, and has such a rich Hispanic population, there should be 10x as many dance clubs celebrating it like they do.

The beaches in Bird Rock remind me of the coves I used to live near in Northern California. They feel rugged and wild and sometimes remote. I love them.

It’s Raw Poke Shop. I absolutely live for this place. I wish I could buy stock in their company, they are local gods in the fish world. My brother lives in Hawaii, I have plenty of other friends and family from there and we all agree nowhere has come close to their poke. Bless that place.

I have yet to go to Rincon Reservation Road Brewery in Ocean Beach, but I’ll recommend a Luiseño/Kumeyaay business, all day, every day.

Azucar bakery, also in Ocean Beach, has Cuban pastries that are unparalleled in San Diego.

I can’t drink caffeine much but I make exceptions as often as possible for Acento Coffee Roasters in Bay Park.. it’s just that good, and the owner is such a wonderful guy, it’s a great business with so much heart.

Going to the Birch Aquarium around sunset and catch the view from their patio, I like to bring a flask of whiskey, or smoke a joint and look at the fishes for a few hours (that’s my idea of a good party ahaha) F*** Seaworld.

Same approach to the zoo, I really can’t get enough of the San Diego Zoo, and I’m quick to defend it if it’s suggested as a tourist trap. I’ve gone on Christmas with my family before, as locals, because it’s so much fun.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I’m lucky that my family has most of the same values that I do. Having grown up in a very small town in the mountains of San Diego, surrounded by natural beauty, the continuation of my interest in the natural world, and drive to stay off the beaten path in my life and career, were not choices that caught them by surprise.

My dads house is full of my art, no matter how old and bad, how it melted in the kiln or the glaze fell flat, he keeps it on display. He bought me my first wheel when I couldn’t afford it, he helped me process and dry the 1,400 pounds of wild clay we found behind the house, and having always seen my passion and love for this field, never even suggested I should do something different. He has extended the same enthusiasm and undying support to my brothers as well, in all our respective passions, we are all very lucky.

My moms background, coming from New York, an artist herself, but having pursued a career in business and accounting, has obviously been invaluable to someone like myself, who’s never succeeded with numbers. She let me build a pottery studio in her treehouse, flung tarps over my kiln in the wee hours of the night when I’d forgotten to, and is always the first to share my work. My brothers are my best friends in the whole world. There’s not many people that can say that with complete earnestness, so I count my gratitudes. Their love and support of me as a human being is so integral to all success I’ve achieved in every aspect of my life that I could never bring it down to just a few sentences.

I hit the lottery in the partner department as well. He’s not only the most thoughtful and patient and supportive partner- (my friends, family and myself all pinch ourselves over what a saint he is.) but he’s also a supremely talented potter! So when I gargle in ceramic speak, or need to fix a complex issue, he already has all the baseline knowledge needed to help me problem solve right away. When I lost my job at a community studio that my heart was so intrinsically tied too, he was there to help me pick up the pieces, and create an even better life in this field than I had ever imagined could happen at my age. We have a studio together now, where he calls himself my “ghost potter..” doing some of the repetitive work and production throwing so I can focus on all my mad science projects. The playful term (his idea) is an homage to all the women who were writing and editing under the names of their famous husbands without credit. But he deserves tons of credit. Sometimes, embarrassingly, I actually do suspect I might be the luckiest woman alive, having landed him as a partner.

My ceramics teacher in high school, and my fellow mountain woman, Molly Roby, was my first pottery mentor. She saw my immediate love for clay and tolerated my class absences to go to the beach with friends because (I think) she knew I would be doing this for a long time. I had caught the bug, she and I were now two in the same. My classmates thought I was her daughter, and ten years later they are pretty right. Sometimes we go a while without talking, but then I’ll meet up with her and her kids and hang in the park, or drink a beer in the mountain pub. She took me under her wing when I moved back from New York City and taught me how to mix glazes, fire a gas kiln and teach wheel throwing. Some of my students call me “pot mom,” which would make her “pot grandma”. Except she’s not old, she’s very cool and hot and even at 15 years old, made me so excited to grow up and be a tough ceramic artist lady.

Art and life are really interwoven, I couldn’t ever cover all the books and mentors and quotes and moments that contributed to this present place. But I’m very grateful.

Website: www.ollaceramics.com

Instagram: www.instagram.com/olla.ceramics