introducing....carole epp

Where do you currently live?

Saskatoon

Tell us the best thing about that city.

It's big enough, but not too big. It’s the kind of size you can establish yourself within yet still not run into people from high school all the time. Good art scene.

If you didn’t live there you’d love to live…..

I love Canada, but I’d love to travel more. Ideally I’d live somewhere new every year. So long as there was a studio space to work in.

Out side of ceramic art what other types of art/design/fashion etc are you drawn to and does it influence your work?

Children’s book illustrators I think are some of the most undervalued artists. I can barely walk into a children’s bookstore. I could go broke. I’m also a huge fan of pop surrealism. In some ways there’s actually a fair degree of aesthetic and thematic crossover between them now that I think of it.

If you couldn’t be an artist next best job would be:

I’d love to be a mail carrier. Hours to myself to think. Plus good exercise. I'm also considering taking my horrible habit of singing in the car to the next level....

What’s the most ridiculous thing you’ve done in the name of art?

If I told you I’d have to kill you to protect the innocent. No really...I think I've had far more ridiculous and crazy ideas in my head then anything I've ever done in real life. I'm not confident enough yet in my work to let it all out. Someday....wait for it....

No cheating what’s the book beside your bed?

An old vintage accountants book that I use to write down the silly and beautiful things my kids do. A copy of Edmund DeWaal’s Hare with the Amber eyes, and some silly teenage fiction book about time travel and the apocalypse.

If you could exhibit your work alongside any artist, alive or dead who would you want to show with?

Hieronymus Bosch. There’s not much better then that.

Name someone everyone should follow on instragram:

@jamesjeanart he's one of my favorite contemporary artists

Best tip you’ve ever been given on how to be an artist:

Not many people make it. So work hard. And don’t expect to make it before your 60’s.

Favorite thing to listen to in the studio:

The silence of my children being gone. If I’m throwing I’ll listen to CBC radio, but otherwise I crave the quiet I don’t normally get in my daily life.

Creative blocks? How do you fix them?

Whine to my husband. Complain to my friends. Nap a lot for a few days and then get back to it. Often working in a completely different medium helps. Then I’m at least making something and feeling productive.

Do you have a super power? If yes what? If no what super power would you choose?

I still remember a twilight zone episode from when I was a kid where a mom found a necklace or something and when she wore it if she yelled “shut up” the world around her and time would stop still. I need that super power to get a few more hours in the day to get caught up on stuff and to maybe go for a quiet swim everyday. Plus like the lady in the show I could stop time if the world was going to explode due to an atomic bomb.

One goal, art related or otherwise, that you want to accomplish before you die?

When I was in elementary school I thought I’d be a writer. Someday I want a big ole book about ceramic art on the shelf with my name on it as a writer, or maybe I want someone someday to write a book about me...we’ll see if either ends up happening. All in all I'm pretty darn happy with what I've acheived so far.

See more of Carole's work on her make and do profile page.