Natalie Piazza Ceramic Artist

I was first introduced to wood firing in 2016 through a colleague while I was studying ceramics at San Jose State University. I worked for and fired with the crew at Spring Valley Anagama, a privately-owned pair of kilns in Milpitas, CA. Concurrently, I worked at Bay Area clay manufacturer Clay Planet with wood fire enthusiasts Matt Hoogland and Shawn Felts, who stoked my delight in trying experimental clay bodies in nobori and anagama firings. In August of 2020, my partner and I accepted a wood firing residency under Nick Schwartz at Flynn Creek Pottery, which continued to develop my love for the process and for Japanese ceramics. The same year, we were both recruited as part of the crew for Aum Construction's large anagama in Albion, CA, where we continue to fire regularly.

After years of highly detailed figural sculpture and illustration, I found myself longing for something simple, primal, and gestural in my practice. I found relief from my preoccupation with meticulous decoration on my pieces in the wild, uncontrolled atmosphere of wood firing, in which the ash and flames ornament the pieces' surfaces. My forms are deeply influenced by traditional Japanese ceramics, mainly Edo-period Tamba Ware, and organic elements of nature that I encounter in my experiences farming and wandering the woods. I find that voluptuous, worn, soft forms are the perfect canvas for telling the story of each firing and thus, representing the finite and pressured nature of the human life experience.