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Sue Tirrell at work in her home studio. Photo credit: Vani MacIsaac

Purpose and Priorities: Figuring It Out

Kayla Noble

As an artist at the beginning of my professional career, I find myself wondering how some people seem to make it all work. I keep seeing others, artists, potters, and sculptors, living picture-perfect lives with gorgeous studios and their work in all the big name galleries. How did they get there? They had to be like me at one point, right? Nearly broke and schlepping my work from rental kiln to rental kiln. Making stuff while juggling jobs, wondering when I will possibly have time to sit down and read a book or even pick up a hobby. 

Curious to learn, I sat down with Sue Tirrell, someone who has long-standing relationships with many galleries and experience working with a larger corporation, to discuss how she grew her studio practice into a viable business. I got some answers to my burning questions: How can you direct your path towards a life you want to live? How can you manage a boundary between your personal life and work? Especially, when social media seems to blur those lines and your studio is right next to where you do laundry! She generously shared the story of how she built and navigated her gallery relationships and also her thoughts on what galleries do to earn their commission. We discussed what it’s like to sell wholesale and how those systems can work for a very tiny business. She shed light on the specific realities of the  hard work, planning, and creative thinking it takes to reach your end goals. I am excited to share what I learned with you.

Kayla Noble: Let’s start at the beginning, I'd love to know about how you started turning your art practice into a business. Was there a specific point when you realized it was working, or did it happen over a long period of time?

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Author Bio

Kayla Noble

After growing up watching her grandfather work as a potter, Noble decided to take Basic Ceramics at The State University of New York at New Paltz and fell deeply in love with the medium. Graduating in 2015 with a BFA in ceramics, she accepted a 2016 residency at Taos Clay, New Mexico. After the residency ended, she stayed in Taos for several years, set up a home studio practice, and enjoyed the feral and vivacious community one can find in a small mountain town. It was here that she was introduced to skiing and wood firing. In 2020 she came back to the Hudson Valley and currently resides in Newburgh, New York. As she continues to develop and grow her studio practice, she works to define what it means to be an artist, craftsperson, and designer in this ever-changing and growing world. She approaches both her art and writing with an unfiltered and all-encompassing curiosity, like that of a child. "Right now, I make pots with a feeling of quiet profundity."
 

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