Meet Molly Jo Shea: Ceramicist & Performance Artist

We had the good fortune of connecting with Molly Jo Shea and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Molly Jo, every day, we about how much execution matters, but we think ideas matter as well. How did you come up with the idea for your business?
I started working with ceramics seriously in 2014, I had a day job at OTIS as an admissions counselor and my commute was over an hour and 1/2 with rush hour traffic. So I enrolled in an extension course that met at night so that I would have something to do while I waited for traffic to calm down. I had previously taken ceramics classes in high school, but never really connected with it because it always seemed so fussy and made my hands feel dry and weird. The extension course at OTIS was great for getting me into some basic techniques, but really the community of people I got to interact with, was so positive and inspiring. I kept on making things after the extension course and it became melded into my art practice when I went to grad school at CalArts. Coming from performance and new media background, so much of my work was ephemeral and purely conceptual. Having something I could make with my body and give to people or sell seemed like such a novel new part of my practice. So many people would want something to remember my performances, so ceramics became a way to make souvenirs of those things. First came my mug mug faces made from mold of my face, then I made hand mugs with my nail erotica manicure, then champagne flutes from molds of female urination devices and then wearables, planters and pretty much anything my mind came up with. I came up with the name “Garage Sale” for my work because I thought of my ceramics practice of the objects and things that people could afford to take from me or art I wasn’t afraid to let go of. Now that my ceramics practice has matured and the quality has improved, I still have “Garage Sale” for smaller item and have built out “Estate Sale” for people wanting more luxury items or commissions. While 2020 has been an absolute nightmare, this year has been the first year people have trusted me to do larger commission works for them and I love working directly with people to make things. I must be incredibly lucky, because most people have trusted me to make stuff based on me letting me read their “vibes” or just say stuff like ” I like blue and cats”. I hope that in the next year I’ll be moving towards making more larger commissions and hopefully some more mirrors! 

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I like to think that I’m approaching my artwork from two brows at the same time; High and Low. Honestly this is probably a great expression for me to be wearing, as I’m often very skeptical of things. For me art should not be for one community or have one function. So much of my art school pedigree trained me to believe that art was not valid unless you had built a conceptual framework to support every decision you had made around its creation. While creating those frameworks and systems gives me so much joy, it was robbing me of the therapeutic and honest connection to materials. In my performances I love to create narratives and structures that collapse and combine ideas I’ve been playing with, but I always try to have a ladder for people to reach these ideas by using humor, pop culture, or gestalt. I’ve tried to keep these techniques in my ceramics work as well, but par it down and combine it with functionality. What happens when you drink your drinks out of a mold of my hand that you can’t let go of until you complete your drink? What kind of power do you have to command to wear a ceramic snake around your neck? What fairyland do you live in when you get to smoke weed from a mandrake root? What does it mean to look into a mirror made of eyes? I love to think about how bodies work with my pieces. How to bend notions of “functionality” in craft-oriented material. Who will be living with my work, and how my objects will work within their homes.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Oh this is such a sad question during the pandemic. Fortunately, I am a romantic and even with the restrictions- I keep finding beauty in this city. Usually when my friends are in town I try to operate them around Chinatown. Partly out of laziness because I want to be near the studio and partly because it is the city in Los Angeles that is closest to my heart. As a native Los Angelino- growing up in the Valley and Highland Park, Chinatown was always accessible via Goldline and filled with new things to discover. After I graduated undergrad at SAIC and moved back, that neighborhood was the closest to my home/gallery- Eastside International, and so much life teamed from it- from art collectives to music events and openings. My love affair with Chinatown was even cemented when I curated the last “Perform Chinatown” performance art festival in 2015. My perfect days include going to Nick’s Cafe for eggs benedict, grabbing a coffee at Chimney, coconut cakes in the parking lot of LAX-C market, walking around LASH (Los Angeles State Historic Park), going to the galleries that are open like Charlie James, the puppet-friendly theater Automata, the infamous Human Resources, the small and mighty Actual Size and so many pop-ups, clubs and festivals that have happened in that neighborhood. There are so many things to see there and if for some reason you hate it- its nestled between other areas of interest like Downtown, Echo Park, Dodgerland and the Arts District.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
So much of what I do would not be possible without other artists and makers. Currently I work at a studio in Chinatown, Clay CA. I would have gone absolutely bonkers if I had not had a space to create during the pandemic and I’ve learned so much there from fellow staff members and the owners Gabi and Justin. To me, it is so important to have good energy around you. As someone who is primarily a hand-builder and makes weird stuff, a lot of former ceramics studios really didn’t encourage my experimentation or know how to nurture my creativity. What I love about Clay CA is they have the facilities for classical pottery, but also have a lot of artists and sculptors who happen to use clay. So many craft-oriented communities I’ve popped in and out of, were often too myopic about their work and were not able to experiment beyond bowls or techniques. I couldn’t be happier with the collection of weirdos and visionaries working and playing there.

Website: www.mollyjoshea.com/shop
Instagram: @garagesalemolly @mollyjosheart
Linkedin: LOL- NO
Twitter: NO
Facebook: NO
Yelp: No
Other: @marsupial_mutant on tiktok

Image Credits
Ian Riccardo Aguilar for photos except for planter with flower and group shot in front of rainbow backdrop (Those photos are by me).