Tonsgard Brings Elegance to Everyday Ceramics

The ceramic artist and designer Christian S. Tonsgard is not one to put his work on a pedestal. For his thesis presentation at Arizona State University (ASU), where he received his Master of Fine Arts in 2009, Tonsgard displayed the bowls, plates, and cups he had crafted on tables from IKEA rather than in a traditional gallery setting. While this might have seemed like a postmodern joke, Tonsgard is by no means an ironist. Rather, his work focuses on the dynamic between design and craftsmanship, a topic that was central to his talk at the Office for the Arts Ceramics Studio last Thursday.“

I try to add elegance to the everyday,” Tonsgard said. “My pedestals are in the home.”

Tonsgard—who received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in ceramics at the Rhode Island School of Design in 2005 before completing graduate studies at ASU—makes asymmetrical and minimally colored ceramic pieces that still retain their functionality. His visit to the Ceramics Studio was divided into a demonstration of his techniques and a slideshow where he discussed the influences and goals of his work. Tonsgard focused on his attempts to find balance in his art: balance between design and craftsmanship; between accessibility and artistic respectability; and between machine-like precision and the human touch. Though the demonstrations were filled with humorous insights—Tonsgard attributed his confident working technique to being an “ex-jock” and joked that clay “was able to smell fear”—his discussion about artistic balance was prominent throughout. “

People’s aesthetics are changing because of the fact that they have to make money,” Tonsgard said. “I didn’t get into this to get rich, but I have to broaden my clientele.”

Tonsgard said that he makes an effort to stay true to the art of ceramics while reaching a wider audience. One way he has attempted to do this is by creating alternative gallery spaces: in 2009, he began a traveling exhibition called “a la cARTe,” where restaurants would serve food on plates and bowls made by ceramic artists.

“You could go in, eat off the work, and then buy it,” Tonsgard explained during the slideshow.

Though Tonsgard’s said “a la cARTe” proved to be logistically challenging, he currently has plans to stage similar events at a restaurant in Providence, R.I., close to his home.

Tonsgard has also attempted to reach a broader clientele by including elements in his work that appeal to both ceramics insiders and the greater public. During the slideshow, he spoke about how he will sometimes leave fingermarks in his work; instead of removing the prints, he highlights them with a small circle of color, leaving an artistic signature.

“[The prints] are noticed and appreciated by both people in the medium and people that have no idea whatsoever about clay,” Tonsgard said.

These subtle signatures also serve another purpose: they highlight the interplay between machine-like rigor and the more human elements in Tonsgard’s work. He is inspired by both natural sources such as flower buds and man-made objects such as tennis shoes.“

What really strikes me is precision,” Tonsgard said. “I want to fool people. I want them to question if it was made by a machine. Along the way, I leave little hints that it’s man-made.”

Tonsgard’s bold precision was on full display during his technical demonstrations as he exhibited his spinning and glazing techniques.

“I don’t drink a lot of coffee before this,” Tonsgard said while spinning. “My actions are straight and to the point. I’m not timid about it—I just go in and do it.”

Though Tonsgard repeatedly apologized for the painstaking nature of some of the demonstrations, the crowd proved receptive. Alice L. Abrams, a resident artist in the Ceramics Program, said both Tonsgard’s talk and his demonstrations were enlightening.

“Everyone always touches clay in different ways,” Adams said. “That always reveals a new technique. He touched the clay the way that he spoke—very clearly, very deliberately.”

Ceramics Program Instructor Pamela Gorgone shared Adams’s sentiments. “He’s very comfortable, tactile, determined,” Gorgone said.

Shawn L. Panepinto, acting director of the Ceramics Program and a ceramic artist, said she was particularly impressed by Tonsgard’s confident presence during the demonstrations. Though Tonsgard said after the event that although he was actually quite nervous during some demonstrations, he found the presentation to be a success.

“I had a set idea of what I wanted to show people,” Tonsgard said after the event. “Ceramics has such a deep history and I don’t want to ignore that. I’m trying to be a contemporary craftsman who’s not stuck in history.”