Luke Jacks
May 9, 2009
Luke’s the best case of dissociative identity disorder we’ve seen in quite a while; sweet boy with innocent eyes that any mother could fall prey to, drummer in the black metal-core band The Phantom Variant, and the hippie potter with patience a mile along. We spent time in his studio Thursday, talking clay, where he shocked and awed me with his multitude of talents.
Were you always very hands on as a kid? Playing with Sculpy?
No, I just did a lot of drawing and painting, never any sculpture. When I got older, I got myself into trouble, my mom bailed me out and told me I needed to go back to school to be an artist. Ok, done.
Tell me about your workload.
I’ll spend 2-3 days in the studio per week, maybe 10 hours or so. That’s not a lot, but I can pump out 35 pieces of the more simple designs.
If everything goes smoothly, that is.
I worked on this one pot for ten, fifteen, hours, I loved it, but I didn’t let it dry enough before I fired it. I was discouraged and didn’t come out to the studio for about three weeks. I was supposed to fire it at 1800 and I fired it at 2200, it melted over everything. Kiln shelves cost a couple hundred dollars. And you never know till the very end.
The anxiety of it all must be terrible!
Sure, throw it and wait, bisque the peice then wait, test the glaze then wait, fire the piece then wait. If after all that, it doesn’t work, it’s pretty disheartening.
I heard that there is no consistency to glazes, that it’s dependent on so many variables.
Yeah, I was doing a set for this lady and was supposed to be finished with it by February, but its not done because it looks like a flat brown color. It’s supposed to look more along the lines of chocolate brown with speckles of blue and yellow. Glazes do their own thing when you mix them, though Epsom salt sometimes helps. My raspberry glaze is about the only one I have that comes out the same every time. I did a jar where I mixed red with white, and it sort of bubbled, and created this great effect. I couldn’t do that again. It depends on what type of clay body the work has too, glaze will look different on white clay then red clay.
The cool thing about the illustrated pieces is, what you see is what you get. You paint on whatever you want and it looks pretty much the same before and after you fire it. I just dunked the illustration plates in clear glaze and fired them.
I mix all my own glazes too so my measurements have to be right. I write all my recipes on the wall. Silica – which is ground up glass, Bentonite – heavy metals, iron oxide. The only bad thing, is paying shipping and handling on these heavy metals. And you don’t want to mix your own under glazes.
So commissions are hard then. How do you estimate time for people?
I try to give myself a few months – I first talked to the lady I just mentioned back in November about doing this set. I have a all the pieces thrown and bisqued already, they’re just waiting on glaze. It’s sometimes a pain in the ass. You just take chances and let it do it’s thing.
What’s you’re preferred scenario – to have someone tell you exactly what they’re looking for, or to give you an idea of what they like and let you do your thing?
I love when they say, ‘Do what you do’. Here’s a vessel where the lady told me she wanted a frog, a dragonfly and a lizard on it, but I could do whatever I wanted otherwise. She backed out last minute, but I was happy she did because she commissioned it for sixty bucks and I just couldn’t stop myself at sixty. It would’ve looked like shit. I kept saying, I hope she doesn’t buy it! Now it’s a portfolio piece.
What’s with all the pots laying in the grass outside the studio?
Mostly just test pieces and frost damage. You can see the cracks. I’ll throw a piece, it’s still wet, it freezes and cracks because of the moisture in the pot.
So you couldn’t have a studio like this if you lived up North.
I would probably have to go crazy with the installation. It doesn’t even get that cold here and the pots will still crack. Ideally, the studio needs to remain between 60˚ & 70˚, 50˚ is ok too, but as soon as it hits 30, I have to stop working.
This is a pretty cool skull, is it a mold?
I did this one in a sculpture class when we were studying the human anatomy at Carolina Community. It’s petty heavy. We had one of those skeletons you use in science class, the plastic ones. The second one I did without a reference though.
What would you say is your most lucrative piece?
I’m still trying to figure out what I want to do as far as style. I want to find out what sells best and do a whole line of those pieces. Lately it’s been the red oxide pots with the glazed colors on the inside. I’ve been selling at a few local places – Harry’s Market, a gift shop at South Point- so hopefully those will give me some better direction.
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4 Shouts to “Luke Jacks”
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So proud of you Lucas! You deserve some props for all of the beautiful things you make! We all know you are the shyt! Love ya
Luke, your work is amazing! i knew you was just that talented! stick with it…your awesome!!! love ya
Dude! Why didn’t you tell us this was going to be up here?! Yo ass got a lot of talent don’t forget the band when you make it big HAHA
man you are good we all know you were artistic you go boy