Anna Highsmith
[1997, Industrial Design]

Based in Providence, RI

Dot Dot Workshop’s RISD Craft Gallery

My work is about texture, pattern, touch, and contrast. I roll stoneware clay into soft, flexible slabs, and then cut and wrap and bend and stretch those slabs into pots: mugs, cups, bowls, and plates. Each pot is made by my own hands, and the marks of texture and pattern are a record of my movements and decisions as I work. My mind, my hands and the material are my essential tools. When the pots are finished, I send them out into the world, to be discovered and handled by people who investigate the choices I’ve made with their own eyes and fingers. Each piece of my work strings a silent, intimate through-line from my studio through the public realm, into someone’s else’s home and daily life. I see my pots primarily as tangible tenderness delivery vessels. As an introvert who loves humans, but usually in small, infrequent doses, I find this a very satisfying arrangement.

What are some of the most important practices for your creative process?

I’m a little bit obsessed with efficiency, which can either hold me back or lead to new directions in my work, depending on the day. I’ve definitely spent a few hours making something I don’t love just so I didn’t waste a dollar’s worth of material. But I also arrange my workflow in a way that I find satisfying, and that usually results in work that I feel good about. Lately, I’m cutting my soft clay scraps into uniform circles that I can make tiny dishes out of. The tiny pieces are low-stakes enough that I can be experimental without worrying about wasting time and material, and I really love the feeling of approaching a whole table full of little blank plates, waiting for me to paint, carve, stamp, stencil, inlay, and incise to my heart’s content. During this scrap-using and experimenting, I often discover new marks or imagery that finds its way onto larger pots. And if they end up being kind of lame, then hey, at least they’re small. And that’s why seconds sales exist.

How does your current creative practice tie into your time spent at RISD?

My favorite part of my time in Industrial Design was experimenting with different materials. I made things out of wood, metal, fabric, cardboard, paper, plaster, and ceramic. The most satisfying projects were always the ones where I felt like my understanding of the material shaped my final design in a way that made the solution seem obvious and natural. Now I only work with clay, but all my material explorations in school have informed the way I approach it. One of the exciting things about clay is that the material can have completely different attributes, depending on how dry it is, and whether or not it’s been fired. It can be fluid, ductile, drapable, resilient, carvable, rigid, and (finally) stonelike, waterproof, and ready to last millenia (so, no pressure). I love the clay at every stage, and I’m always working to understand it better. When I make marks in the clay and the glaze, my goal is to show the nature of the material, so that the user gets a little window into the processes behind the finished object.

Tell us about some of your main sources of inspiration.

In terms of direct aesthetic choices, I’m mostly inspired by the nature and potential of my materials and my tools. The look of my work evolves in direct relationship with my learning, experimenting and repeated practice. I also get a lot out of the teaching that I do. The best classes are where there’s a group of people all ready to try and fail and learn and talk about it. The shared space and time with eight or ten brains all working on similar challenges is a super-rich opportunity, and I love how we all learn different things while sharing the same space. I think a lot about what it means to create a space that allows people to be brave, take risks, try things, and fail. I try to be as patient with myself in the studio as I hope I am with my students.

In terms of external inspiration, the things that can bring me pure aesthetic joy include loading docks, retaining walls, millstones, aglets, grommets, casters, eyedroppers, belt loops, spools, conveyor belts, drive belts, bricks, rubber mallets, feed dogs, bodkins, dry beans, pallet knives, whisk brooms, basins, ladles, embroidery and hasps. Also the word “hasps.”

To see more of Anna’s work, visit dotdotworkshop.com