They created their pieces for six months.
Chris Swasta, a potter, and Hannah Genevieve Lawrence, a macrame artist, took the first three months to create on their own, then they spent the rest of the time weaving their work together.
They’d been approached by Amanda Seevers, the Director of Communications at Thea Foundation last fall, and the exhibit had been scheduled for April 3.
Then the pandemic arrived, and everything was postponed.
Chris, of Rolling Hills Pottery, creates what he calls handmade, functional and decorative ceramics at the Arkansas Arts Center.
He’d grown up in North Little Rock, taking art classes in high school and focusing on drawing and photography. He went to Nebraska for college, earning his degree in art and finding pottery along the way. “I got bored with everything else,” Chris explained. “There’s just this aspect of pottery that they don’t have. You can actually hold it. You can actually use it. You can actually feel it with your hands instead of looking at it with your eyes.”
In 2016, when he came back to Little Rock, he found a job at the Arkansas Repertory Theatre. “My old high school teacher was working with me and she was like, ‘Hey, I’ve been following you throughout your college years. I know you started doing pottery. Have you heard about the art center?’ And I was like, ‘No, what is that?’ And so I went there the next day.”
He signed up for classes with Kelly Edwards. “I walked into her class, and I wasn’t going to leave,” Chris shared. “I was going to make something before I left. That’s how it started, and I’ve been there ever since.”
Now, Chris teaches an afterschool program for students ranging in age from 10 to 18, and he’s a part of the work-study program at the center. And after hearing a Radiohead song, he made 6,000 pieces over the past six months, crediting his creative drive to synesthesia. “Anything I see, anything I hear, I visually relate it to a 3D form,” Chris explained. “This installation is inspired by a song.”
The installation will move forward in 2021, and Chris is holding onto the pieces, but lending them out for other projects, like photoshoots, if asked. And he’s got enough clay to last another month, so he can still offer commission work. “Even though I am at a standstill, that doesn’t mean I can’t make,” Chris said. “I always have the ability to make whenever and wherever I want as long as I have the clay with me.”
And his work is available throughout Little Rock at White Goat, Nexus Coffee and Creative, and Bella Vita Jewelry. He’s looking for other locations as well, and he can be found on Facebook and Instagram.
The change in pace has been challenging. “I hope to not die of boredom,” Chris said. “Just keep my head up. Keep making. That’s all I can really do right now.”
Season three of Sustaining Craft explores how those with creative businesses have been impacted with the world-wide pandemic hitting the United States. Listen to the podcast, watch the YouTube videos, or follow on Instagram.