…because it’s actually not porcelain, or made in China. This ‘Murica-made ceramics speaks to a younger generation of homemakers that are done with boring mass-produced dinnerware sets. Skulls and speech bubbles are a recurring theme in her chromatic, functional pieces.
As I poked around the mugs and bowls on her dining table, I flip one cup over and am greeted with a huge smiley face stamped on the bottom. Yungbluth explains, “I had a teacher tell me to always do the bottom because when I’m drinking, what are you across the table going to enjoy?” I look at the bottom of another and it reads, “Hello, Beautiful.” (I mean, who doesn’t need a nice little reminder once in a while?)
With the current body of work, she’s exploring with textured rolling pins.
“It’s sort of a duality of biography and autobiography; it’s about how I see myself versus how I think other people see me,” she says.
Right now, she’s focusing on three patterns: polka dots, thought bubbles, and skulls
“They are just different things that I view about myself, but the skulls in particular are a focus. People see me as a skull lover; it’s just been that way for so many years now. It’s not that I’m not that, but it’s one of those things where when people see something about yourself, they sort of just zone in on it," Yungbluth says. "I have maybe three pieces of clothing with skulls on it, but when I wear it everyone notices and say, ‘Oh, another skull sweater?’ I’m like no; it’s just the same exact one. So this work is about me embracing that, and giving people what they want in a funny manner. Then there’s the polka dots, which is how I view me: with a love of patterns.”
Everything she makes is built from a slab (meaning she rolls out the clay like pizza dough, then uses a template to cut out shapes to size). Bringing kitchen utensils into the studio, Yungbluth uses fancy rolling pins with skulls covering the surface to create the imprints in the clay.
Since she’s able to make her own designs (with her extensive graphic design background), she says, “I’m trying to find a company where I can send them the patterns that I create who can print them on a rolling pin for me.”
Typically, functional ceramics are done on the wheel to crank them out a bit faster.
“I do wheel throwing for fun, but I’m a better builder than thrower," she says, "It would be frustrating for me because with these, I can do a template and know that these bowls will stack up like that. If I throw, I’m not proficient enough to get them to be the same size each time, so three out of twenty bowls would fit together.”
Specific color choice also plays into her juxtaposition of autobiographical and biographical works.
“For instance, I view myself as bright colors, and a lot of other people see that I wear a lot of black, so they see me as darker. It’s just a weird play on perception. People just need to latch onto something to relate to, I think that’s where it stems from,” Yungbluth says.
She points to a vibrant yellow mug with a orange underglaze added to enhance the surface design and says, “There’s the ‘Me’ color palette. I love neon colors; it goes back to my childhood. My Little Ponies was something that I loved, so these colors are pulled straight from those classic toys.”
The other color palette (for how others view her) is darker, but is also fired completely differently from the other series.
She picks up a metallic-colored skull mug and says, “This is all wood fired in a wood kiln in all dark colors. So it starts with browns, blacks, reds, navy, hunter green; just really earthy colors.”
With the bright color palette, she knows how everything is going fire; but with the dark, biographical palette, she gives up control since she has only a vague idea of what glaze she’ll get.
She says, “In wood kilns, a lot of times there are parts of the kiln that will fire beautifully with the glazes, and other parts that don’t. Those are the pieces that I re-fire in the soda kiln.”
In these firings, different effects are achieved through the length of the firing, minerals and salts in the wood, and even flame markings on the piece. In the end, taking the pieces out of the kiln is like a surprise birthday present: you may be pleasantly surprised by how the glaze reacted, or disappointed at the Frankensteinian monster that has become of your piece.
She doesn’t seem to have that problem since all of her ceramics are eye-catching; and her clever “installations” really show off her work in an “I-wish-I-had-thought-of-that!” way.
“I don’t really make big functional work, I like intimate things. A lot of my work comes from what I like to see on my dresser or nightstand, so I make little boxes or dishes to put earrings in. When you get into a big gallery space, the work gets eaten alive. These [displays] are what help make it a bigger presence,” she tells me.
Instead of the typical white pedestal for ceramic works, Yungbluth builds wooden hanging displays with painted papers on top. Some are small colorful wall shelves, while others are shaped into speech bubbles with hooks to hang mugs by their little handles.
I ask about the use of speech bubbles in her pieces, and she says, “They are about whether I want to vocalize my opinion or not. That’s more so thoughts on getting older, becoming more mature, and not feeling like I need to over-talk or over-explain. Sometimes it’s just better to keep the opinion to yourself, and then other times it’s not so. That’s more about growing older on a daily basis: do I talk, or do I keep my trap shut.”
When I met up with Yungbluth at her home studio that she shares with her ceramicist husband Adam Yungbluth, she had just flown back in from the NCECA (National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts) annual conference held at Kansas City, MO this year.
To get somewhat of an idea of what NCECA is all about, it’s that time of the year when 8,000 ceramic artists come together to see lectures, demos, galleries, museums, and other pop-up shows featuring this earthy goodness. Having been absolutely blown away by the talent I saw when I went to NCECA 2010 in Philly, I knew she would have a ton of studio inspiration to work with.
She came back with a few new pieces for her collection, but two of the artists who excite her most right now are Max Seinfeld and A. Blair Clemo.
“I’m interested in people who have a deep sense of ceramic history in the pieces that they make, but put a contemporary spin on it. These two are who I can’t stop thinking about these days,” Yungbluth says.
In her dining room are long rows of wall shelves, stocked with at least 100 mugs.
She laughs as she says, “It’s an addiction, obviously.” Mug-life isn’t for everyone, but most ceramicists know how hard it is to resist adding to their collection. “It’s good though, because if I’m ever trying to figure out a new handle for one of my mugs, I can just come here,” she said looking at her wall of inspiration.
Yungbluth grew up right outside of New Orleans up until high school, and was always drawing.
“It’s been art forever since I was a little kid. I started out mimicking what was in coloring books, or learning how to do bubble letters for a friend’s name,” she tells me.
She received her BFA from University of Louisiana at Monroe with a double major in graphic design and ceramics. She went to University of Mississippi for her MFA in printmaking, with a focus on lithography.
“It was like going back to my childhood almost, because lithography is purely drawing,” she says.
And talk about a busy lady: in addition to her studio work, Yungbluth has been working at the Morean Arts Center for a little over 5 years, and has been serving as Assistant Curator since 2011. Constantly working out exhibition details, I imagined that this would impact her work.
“Being a curator really helps. To a certain extent, I’m overexposed to other people’s artwork, and I can extract little things if I want to. I think the biggest help being a curator that affects my work is that this is when I’m not thinking about my job during the day. This is a way for me to completely shut that off when I come home, and focus entirely on something else while still being creative. I can’t not be creative; it’s just not in me,” she says.
As my last question, I ask Yungbluth how we might continue improving the arts in the Bay area and she says, “For me, I just want to find a way to be a champion of artists who are our age, but not at all driving out the people that have been here for a while. It’s about finding ways to bring more light to younger artists.”
To see more of Yungbluth’s work and purchase pieces, visit: melissayungbluth.tumblr.com or etsy.com/shop/melissayungbluth
Instagram: @melissayungbluth
Urban Dictionary defines Femme Fatale as “a woman with both intelligence and sex appeal that uses these skills to manipulate poor helpless men into doing what she wants. May cause death.” Keeping in line with this concept, the women highlighted in Caitlin Albritton's "Femme Visuale" series aims to highlight local women artists and show off some lesser-known talent that's been hiding in the shadows. In the art world, if it ain't big and loud, it ain't being seen (looking at you, Koons). Art as a grand spectacle leaves little room for modest, sincere, or quiet voices, especially women's voices. And I promise, we won’t bite.
This article appears in Jun 2-8, 2016.