Michael Kline: A Life Molded by Clay

As a former engineering student, Michael J. Kline most likely never envisioned himself teaching a pottery masterclass through the Ceramics Program at the Office of the Arts at Harvard. Yet following his passion led him to just that on Saturday, Feb. 11—not to mention a successful career as an artist. Kline became a studio potter in 1993 after earning a BFA from the University of Tennessee. His work is featured in various magazines and books and made an appearance in the 2007 film “Craft in America.” He sat down with The Harvard Crimson to discuss his path as an artist over the years.

The Harvard Crimson: When did you realize you wanted to pursue pottery?

Michael J. Kline: I knew right away when I touched clay. It’s almost a cliche, but I knew there was something about this material that I really responded to, maybe in … a subconscious way. I just really liked the way it felt and I … wanted to gravitate towards it, and later I found out that people actually did have successful careers working with clay and being artistic. But that unfolded slowly over the next few years.

THC: Did wheel pottery come naturally to you?

MJK: No, actually…the pottery wheel is a very technical device; you needed skills to learn. So I remember being really frustrated with the wheel, but I was persistent. So with lots of different people helping me—and repetition—I finally learned how to use the tool. But it was the clay itself that really kept me engaged. You can just approach clay with your hands and form it … Clay had a really immediate reaction, although it did have rules that I had to learn, that I continue to learn as I explore other ways of forming, but I think the immediate response is what really gave me confidence to explore it.

THC: What have been some milestones in your career?

MJK: The milestones may be more typically when my parents acknowledged what I was doing as a young person. Coming to an art show…was the point where they understood that there was a security in the field that I was pursuing. It was something I could make a living at. The other milestone that happens over and over again is—in a funny way I guess you’d call it a milestone—I finally built my own personal studio, after many years of renting facilities and being in a community studios and institutional places. I built the studio about eight years ago, and that was quite an accomplishment, to have my own place. And I still think from time to time … “Oh, this is my own place, and this is all from the success I’ve made with the pottery in my career.”

THC: What do you draw your inspiration from?

MJK: Well, a lot of historical pottery. I seem to be fascinated by the readily available history of ceramics. And in a more subtle, subconscious way, the landscape around where I live; the mountains in North Carolina. So there’s sort of a variety and a puzzlement of the way the landscape exists that fascinates me. The hills, the ways we get through that landscape; trails, or even climbing a mountain, and looking down on the landscape. I think there’s all these different perspectives that keep it infinitely interesting, and in a subconscious way as a part of my encounter with making pots and clay. I use some clay from the fields, so that’s inspiring—the material itself is inspiring to me. Although it’s kind of a bankrupting process of digging clay. I can buy clay really easily from a supplier, but there [are] parts of my process that really sustain me, and I think we use the word inspiration as a way of … [describing] what sustains you in a creative process. You want to sustain yourself and continue to inspire yourself.

TCH: Do you have a signature style or technique that really defines your work?

MJK: One of the most significant signatures is my brushwork, which is mostly floral motifs in a very dense pattern, and another thing I’ve been doing in the last few years is based on a Korean technique of inlay. The surface of the clay is stamped and or carved and then those impressions in the clay are filled with a different color slip, which is like a liquid clay. So there [are] two different colors of clay put together on a unified surface. I’ll see an image on Instagram that somebody’s tagged me [in] saying, “Oh, this is inspired by Michael Kline’s inlay work.” So it’s really nice, and I guess part of that is me putting out [my work] into the internet.