Andrew 'Augusta' Smith
Andrew ‘Augusta’ Smith is a multi-medium designer and artist based in Phoenix Arizona, primarily focused on ceramic vessels. Native to Edgefield County South Carolina, Augusta uses his background in production scale ceramics and traditional functional forms along with his engineering research discipline to produce wares ranging from precise, codependent vessels and tablewares, to brutalist expressionist sculpture, and many in-between.
Artist Statement
“The engineer vs the artist, the objective vs the subjective, exist like the right and left hand necessary to throw on a potter’s wheel. They push against each other, switching places and striving to communicate, and only when they work in harmony do they succeed in making something meaningful. Sometimes, the left supersedes and the work moves towards the linear and analytical, and the soul of the work is overshadowed by the precision. When the right is in charge, the clay becomes more free, the forms more organic and the surfaces speak with a louder voice. When they work in unison, the personalities of the clay dance with each other, sometimes in an improvisational tango, other times a curated waltz.
Ceramics can be as simple or complex as you wish to make it. For me the beauty comes in the space between, where intuition brings together deeply involved research and elegant form. Ceramics has always been a shelter for me, an escape into thoughtful creation, a dance with a familiar partner. I love this medium, the people I’ve met while doing it, and the experiences gained through this community I have become a part of.
I want you to feel that love, to share that experience, to understand functional ceramics in a way you might not have before. Notice the small things, appreciate subtle differences that a machine doesn’t make. People shouldn’t be the only personalities at your dinner table."
