Ian M Petrie Ceramics



Ian M Petrie Ceramics

About The Artist

Ian Petrie • Philadelphia, PA
Ceramics • WHOLESALE AVAILABLE • CUSTOM COMMISSIONS

My pots serve as art objects that can be admired while on display on the wall, but then suddenly taken down and used to eat a meal. These comics-inspired illustrations are processed as a halftone, screenprinted using a specialized ceramic ink, and ultimately applied to slab-built pottery. Some of my pieces use gold luster to censor areas of the drawings, and as these pots see daily use the layer of gold begins to slowly abrade and reveal the imagery hidden beneath.



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Q&A with the Artist

Tell us how your work is made.

My work is a combination of three different media: comics, screenprinting, and pottery. I begin by drawing illustrations and narratives inspired by everyday life, experiences both personal and entirely made-up. These images are then taken through a screenprint process and printed with a homemade ceramic ink onto newsprint. Finally the prints are applied onto handmade pottery forms to create narrative, functional pottery.


What makes you passionate about the medium you work with?

I find the intersection between pottery and comics to be extremely satisfying and effective. In the studio I have the advantage of always having something fresh to focus on if I become burnt out working in one medium. On the finished pieces I feel that the tactility and interactivity of pottery lends itself well to the emotional investment afforded by narrative artwork.

What is something unique about you or your practice?

On some of my pieces, I utilize gold luster to intentionally censor part of the drawing. Through abrasion, whether it is a few minutes of hard scrubbing or months of consistent use, the luster fades and eventually the entire image is revealed. But if one would like to preserve the beauty of the luster, they must content themselves with never knowing what is hidden beneath.