03.01.2019
In light of the last few months of everything happening within the greater clay community and greater knitting community, I think it’s time to formally introduce myself.
My name is Patricia and I am the ceramic/fibre artist behind Pine Cone Ceramics + Crafts. I created the brand roughly two years ago after realizing that ceramics was going to be a lifelong companion and friend, and it’s only grown in the year since to include the fibre arts.
I’ve always been a crafty person; I often say that there isn’t a craft I’ve met that I didn’t love. I’ve been drawing and playing with clay since I was a small child, my parents’s china cabinet is littered with the small polymer animals I’ve made for them. Despite my long history with art, it wasn’t until a few years ago when I saw an evening beginners ceramics class available at my local Rec Center that I decided to sign up. My instructor was an older woman who had been a professional potter and she was absolutely fantastic. She was kind, knowledgeable, and so full of life. I’ve named one of my pieces after her because she had told me that she had always wanted to hand-build polyhedron forms (it’s the Marilyn Vase if you’re curious).
Knitting came to me by way of The Royal Bee Yarn Company, my local yarn store. I had initially learned to knit way back in high school, when I was a volunteer at a local hospital and volunteered on the long-term patient floor. One of the patients was an elderly woman who taught me how to crochet and knit while telling me hilarious stories of her younger days. I had caught on to crochet faster than knitting, and it wasn’t until last November that I really decided to make a go of knitting.
All that said, I am fully invested in both crafts and their associated communities (both physical and online). I’ve made some of the best friends through these arts, and I’ll never regret all the time and money I’ve invested into them because what they’ve taught me have been priceless.
Last year’s ceramics scandal revolved around Tortus, a well known male ceramicist who was accused of preying on his female assistants. It was awful to see people blindly defend him online, but it was worse to see some men at my community studio be dismissive of the whole issue. Luckily I had my group of wonderful female ceramic artists and we talked through what we saw unfolding online.
Fast forward to this year and the reckoning the knitting community is facing with racism. I’m still learning the bigger names and brands within the community, so I hadn't known what was happening. I was caught up by my amazing knitting sisters and brothers, and I think the recent post by The Blue Brick’s horrible encounter at Stitches West was what really pushed me to write this. I was able to compartmentalize the sexual assault in the clay world to the behavior of specific men, but racism is more insidious in that it requires individuals to really think and re-examine their own thoughts and behavior. The obvious pushback by people like Tuskenknits and Potions Yarn shows how its easier to live in willful ignorance than push your comfort boundaries and reflect.
Shireen’s, post about what she had heard while at Stitches West hit me like a ton of bricks because this year was my first year at Stitches and I had the best time. My LYS was there and so many members of my fibre family went to support the store and shop together; it was a wool-fueled dream and the fact that two vendors blamed POC for less revenue and called them trash has now stained an otherwise perfect weekend. I can’t stop thinking about the what-ifs. We don’t know who those racists are, so what if I had stopped by their booth but didn’t buy anything from them? Am I part of the “trash” that didn’t give them money? Or worse, what if I was part of the “trash” that DID give them money?
Until recently I’ve been one of those artists on Instagram that rarely showed themselves, but in light of all of this, I want everyone who follows me and buys from me to know that I am an artist who is a woman of color. I want fellow creatives to know that I absolutely do not tolerate bigotry and sexism and am always trying to improve my own shortcomings. I could go on with my personal revelations of racism within minority groups and my own experiences thereof, but I won’t for the sake of whatever brevity I have left. I am happy to have that conversation with whoever wants to talk about it.
These communities have improved my life so much, and I want to see them be a supportive incubator for EVERYONE. I’ve decided that I will no longer hide my strong beliefs of social justice in favor of an ambiguous and neutral image as a brand. I want to create meaningful relationships with other creatives and artists in a space we can all feel comfortable in. The arts are for all.
Thank you for reading.
