The Clay Studio offices, galleries, open studio, and school will be closed on Monday, May 26, 2025, in observance of Memorial Day.
PJ Hargraves
I navigate the uncertain times we live in by creating positive, playful sculptures because focusing on joy
is not only possible in times of hardship, I believe it is necessary in order to thrive. I go through life with
a watchful reverence, finding beauty and hope in the abundance of life in the natural world. Using playful
form language and intuitive mark making, I invent my own array of stylized plant life in the form of
contained environments, allowing me to reinvent and intentionally exaggerate landscapes and plant forms
in clay with a freeing sense of whimsy. My fantasized pieces are an invitation to extend imagination to
the joyous moments in the world around us, and to return to an innocent sense of wonder.
My studio practice is a joyful alternative to the pervasive despondency that is present in many aspects of
our culture, capturing optimism and delight through the act of making. The trees I sculpt are methodical
and rhythmic, inspired by both wild and manicured plants, but constructed within the limitations of the
process of coil building and the tensile strength of clay. I work with an emphasis on experimental spirit in
the studio, constantly taking risks with aspects of my making process and the materials I utilize. I find
beauty in the immediacy and materiality of clay, working spontaneously and playfully to imbue my pieces
with palpable energy. I combine a reverence for traditional folk craft with an overstated and garish
flamboyance, using materials like Egyptian paste and beer bottle glass simultaneously.
I am an enthusiastic artist and craftsman, inspired by folk art, historical ceramics, textiles, and the
decorative symbols, icons, and motifs that appear across time and disparate cultures. My high-spirited
objects draw inspiration from Pennsylvania Dutch folk symbols and metaphors of good fortune,
perseverance, hopefulness, and strength. The most prevalent representations of these themes emerge in
the form of various birds and flowers. Referencing this tradition, I adorn each of my pieces with stylized
birds and flowers as a symbolic pattern of abundance and celebration. My sculptures often include vessels
to suggest generosity and plentiful harvest through pottery’s deeply rooted history as crafted objects
intended for containing and offering.
My imagined scenes are a celebration of life’s abundance and a celebration of ceramic processes, offering
positivity and delight through optimistic symbols and lush ceramic surfaces. I hope this work can be an
opportunity to stimulate playful imagination and draw attention to the importance of finding moments of
joy in our increasingly complicated daily lives.
50% of your purchase directly supports the artist, and 50% of
your purchase supports the operations of The Clay Studio, a nonprofit that serves 35,000 people,
including 2,000 underserved school children, each year.
