Today we’d like to introduce you to Maeve Mueller.
Maeve, we’d love to hear your story and how you got to where you are today both personally and as an artist.
I am an artist and jewelry designer based in Cambridge, MA. My body of work includes fine pottery, intricately carved ceramic sculpture and a line of porcelain jewelry called The Lusterbone Collection. I first sat down at a potter’s wheel in Somerville, MA when I was eleven. Eight years later I left Boston to study art at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where I sunk my teeth into every medium I could – from oil paint to yarn to paper to precious metals. Ultimately though, it was a return to clay that felt like home. Ceramics is my language for fleshing out heady questions as well as matters of the heart. It grounds me and brings me calm.
In 2012 I joined the Harvard Ceramic Program where I continue to be a staff member and, more recently, a resident artist. Around that same time, I decided to combine my two artistic concentrations, jewelry design and ceramics, into what is now my porcelain jewelry business. The Lusterbone Collection is inspired by my love of detail, gold and simple, strong, geometric forms. Building and maintaining an artistic business has done two wonderful things: it satisfies my entrepreneurial spirit, and it provides me with the resources I need to sustain a holistic art practice. While I’ve dedicated much of my last 6 years to The Lusterbone Collection, I am always working on sculptural pieces. I have big visions for my artwork, and I hope to strike a true balance between all of it – to communicate authentically and honestly through every piece, whether it’s jewelry, sculpture, pottery or anything else.
We’d love to hear more about your art. What do you do you do and why and what do you hope others will take away from your work?
No matter what particular piece I’m working on – a pair of earrings, a vase, a large-scale carving – I tend to be inspired by the same things. I’m fascinated by humanity’s use of great detail and ornamentation throughout history, especially in depictions of the Divine. I love to look at sacred architecture and religious iconography for their fantastic, almost surreal designs. Following in the steps of that tradition, gold and an imagined vocabulary of geometric symbols have become my mechanisms for capturing attention. I also love to juxtapose severe silhouettes with unexpected elements like textured surfaces. I feel that by bringing together these dispirit characteristics in a piece, I can create tension and a dynamic effect that draws people in to take a closer look. I want to make art that is magnetic and perplexing and ostentatious and quiet, all at the same time.
Although I’m 6 years deep into a clay-based art practice, I’m not entirely married to it. I expect that throughout my lifetime I’ll continue to create art out of any and every material that can physically express the emotion I’m after. But for now, clay is endlessly inspiring to me. It has so much possibility and such a very long tradition in human history. I love that it is elemental, that it comes from the earth. But I also love that I can choose, as I so often do, to give it entirely unnatural-seeming qualities like sharp lines and polished surfaces. Sometimes it’s challenging to work with, and sometimes it’s deliciously accommodating. I doubt I’ll get bored anytime soon.
What do you know now that you wished you had learned earlier?
I worked in shared studio spaces for years before I finally took the leap and got a private space of my own. It was a total game changer. Beyond the extra elbowroom, it felt like I was finally asserting myself as a serious artist. I stopped making excuses, and began working on pieces that I had never given myself permission to make before. It was a vote of confidence and an inspiration like no other. So, without skipping a beat, I will always advise other artists: carve out a space for your craft! Even if it’s just a room in your house at first, or a special table in your apartment. Even if you think you can’t justify the cost. As long as it’s dedicated to your art and your art alone, it will absolutely work wonders.
Do you have any events or exhibitions coming up? Where would one go to see more of your work? How can people support you and your artwork?
My artwork lives in a number of local shops and galleries, including 13FOREST Gallery in Arlington and Magpie in Davis Square, Somerville. To see more images of my finished pieces, visit www.maevemueller.com. I also sell my porcelain and gold jewelry online at www.Lusterbone.com. For more of a behind-the-scenes look at my making process, the studio where I work and events that I participate in, follow me on social media. My Facebook page is www.facebook.com/missmaevemueller and my Instagram handle is @missmaevemueller
Contact Info:
- Website: www.maevemueller.com
- Phone: 9783021307
- Email: maevemueller@gmail.com
- Instagram: @missmaevemueller
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/missmaevemueller
Image Credit:
Jesika Theos and Maeve Mueller.
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