Artist Spotlight: Kiran Joan

About Kiran

I’m an illustrator and designer based in New York, but clay has become my way of thinking through the world. I actually wrote off sculpture after undergrad, it felt too far from what I did as an illustrator. Years later, during my Master’s at the Maryland Institute College of Art, I found myself back in a ceramics studio and realized how naturally it fit. Clay became another kind of drawing surface and a playground that invited my figures and stories to live in three dimensions. This eventually led me to a year-long residency in Baltimore and another at Watershed in Maine.

KIRAN'S PORTFOLIO

Q: What inspires your work or keeps you excited in the studio? 

A: "I’m most inspired by the act of making itself. I rarely start with a fixed plan the ideas evolve as I build. Sometimes a sculpture unexpectedly becomes a fountain or a lamp. That openness keeps the work alive. In a world where so much of our creativity happens on screens, clay feels like an antidote. It slows me down and reminds me to listen."

Q: What is your favorite AMACO product and why?

A: "The Flame Orange and Electric Blue Velvet Underglazes. The colors are so vibrant and fire beautifully at cone 6."

Q: Any advice you'd give to someone just starting out with clay?

A: "Clay will always mirror your state of being. It’s an opportunity to enter a state of flow and uncover your inner world. Through the process, you’ll find your voice and learn to lean into it as a strength to engage with the world. Use that to find your rhythm, your humor, your voice. Everything else will follow."

Follow Kiran's Work!

Kiran's Instagram | Kiran's Website

Photo credits: Sambit Biswas https://sambitbiswas.com/