Meet Meghan Samson | Ceramic Artist and Educator

We had the good fortune of connecting with Meghan Samson and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Meghan, we’d love to hear about how you approach risk and risk-taking
I think the first BIG creative risk I ever made was deciding to study art in college! This was the beginning of my relationship with risk, which has taught me so much how to listen to my intuition and fight the urge to keep things safe. A healthy relationship with risk is a big part of being an artist. When an opportunity or a big life change comes for me, it could be an art endeavor, a job change, or when I opened my clay studio, the risk voice is always there. I can hear it talking me out of whatever it is, fighting with my intuition and ramping up my fear. But if I listen to my gut and I do the hard work, the risk voice slowly fades away and the new parts of me grow and my strength returns. This is what art making is like; You cant grow your creative spirit without taking risk. Letting go in the studio, and connecting with your deepest sense of self-This is growth. So risk is a part of my evolution. Without it, I feel stagnant. So risk is a bit of a motivator and it doesn’t always scare me as much as it used to.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I am an artist who works primarily in clay sculpture.

My work focuses on self-portraiture. It explores ideas of body, motherhood, identity and personal narrative. I use clay for many reasons. The clay process feels like I am telling a deeper story as I make the work; The way I use my own body, hands, and physical movement to construct the forms by rolling coils, slabs, and pinching the clay is a process that binds me to each layer. My fingertips and mark-making into the impressionable soft clay creates a memory of each moment. The material is made of earth, and my intrinsic connection to the clay feels like I am home and comforts me. Once fired, these experiences are trapped like stone, and the glaze can act like an outer layer of drawing to add to this story.

I get excited to make things and to be around other artists. I went to school for art, and loved being in the studios and talking, reading, and living art. When I fell into teaching, it was the best way to connect my love for community and art-making with a career. After teaching for many years I received my MFA and began showing my work more. Having a regular studio practice and teaching part-time was what felt balanced and right. Teaching full time was hard work, and left little time for what I needed to create. I felt determined to try and make that work. When I was ready to start my family I decided to open a clay studio of my own where I could create an art-loving and educational arts community and be able to make more of my own work while raising my children.

The challenges that I most often encounter is financial. Being an artist is really hard work and requires a lot of creativity and hustle and a lot of let down. Sometimes I think its harder than the alternative. But my desire to make art and cultivate community is my calling. I have a lot of determination and stubbornness to prove others wrong which helps. Its also important to note that I have had a lot of emotional support around me for a long time and I acknowledge the privilege I have encountered throughout my life as a white person.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
We would go to Kittery Maine and check out Buoy Gallery for whatever amazing show they have up right now. We would eat and drink next door at Black Birch. We would go to the ocean, walk the Rachel Carson Reserve. We would hang out at my house and I would cook food and bake yummy baked goods for them as we drink wine or tea and spend time together with my cozy family. I would also spend some lazy chill time at Two Bees Patesserie in Dover. Hang out with the cool kids at Chapel and Main. Also while we are in Dover we would pop over to the Dover Art Center where there is always amazing artists and shows mingling. Maybe we could swing up to York Maine and see whats happening at Chases Garage. We could always see if there was a wood firing happening with the NH Potters Guild we could crash. More ocean and woods walks, and fires in my backyard. Definitely an afternoon at MudCity Clay making things and meeting new faces.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I want to thank my husband Brian. Without him I wouldn’t be so brave. It’s amazing to see yourself through someones eyes who really loves and believes in you. It inspires you up like nothing else.

My family. They have always supported my art and have been doing so since the very beginning. So many art shows and so many studio moves, and so much curiosity without judgment. My parents sent me to art classes as a child so I could channel my inner creative. My younger sister and brother played with me for endless hours in our make believe world. This was my foundation. Their love is limitless.

I also have incredible friends all who lift me and hold me for a lifetime. Many of them artists and mothers who don’t need words to stay connected but understand so much. Many of them are friends who have watched me grow and struggle and change and carry me through it with so much kindness.

I have had a few really special and extraordinary art teachers that have shaped me. The ones who saw me before I could. They saw what I was capable of sharing with the world and I cant thank them enough for their time and their care.

Lastly, I cannot forget the staff at MudCity Clay. A group of outstanding humans who I have grown to love and stand by me to make the clay studio thrive. They are the definition of community.

Website: https://www.meghan-samson.com/

Instagram: @mesclay

Other: https://mudcityclay.com/