Meet Artist John Quick, official mug maker of the 39th Annual Penland Benefit Auction.
Quick’s works can be easily recognized by their minimal forms and bright colors. Sure to light up anyone’s day with their glowing presence, these beautiful mugs will be selected by guests at our Saturday morning auction tradition: Breakfast at the Barns.
Making 500 unique, slip cast mugs
John joined us for a week in the Penland clay studio back in the spring, slip casting and glazing 500 beautiful mugs, each of them with a unique signature.
For the Penland benefit auction mugs, Quick employed a “two-part strategy for efficiency.” First, they created a mother mold – a durable mold made of rubber – for both the handle design and the mug body. This master mold allowed them to cast multiple, less-durable plaster molds (around twenty for each component) to expedite the production of 500 mugs. To add visual interest to the uniform design, Quick used colored slips with a variety of stains. This approach introduced variations in color and pattern across the mug set.
Why was slip casting the right choice? “While slip casting ensures the consistency I seek in functional ware, it also offers flexibility in terms of surface decoration and final outcome,” they told us.
About John Quick
John is a queer artist who recently swapped the sandy shores of Saint Augustine, Florida for the bustling streets of Philadelphia. Their work is a captivating fusion of practicality and artistic exploration. Earlier collections featured airbrushed functional pieces with meticulous wheel-throwing and slip-casting techniques combined with stunning airbrushed gradients. These pieces, often minimalist with an emphasis on refined details, showcased a fascination with simple forms. Recently, Quick’s artistic voice has taken a new direction, embracing a more conceptual approach that centers on themes of identity, nostalgia, and the Y2K aesthetic. This experimental body of work delves into new forms, surface decoration, and personal narratives that hold deep meaning for the artist. Quick aspires to bridge the divide between functional and conceptual art by finding connections between their beautifully crafted wares and this evolving dialogue.
John’s Penland Connection
John’s journey as a ceramic artist took a pivotal turn in the fall of 2022 during their first visit to Penland as the studio assistant for Matt Repsher’s fall concentration workshop, an experience they remember as transformative. Fueled by newfound connection to Penland and the ceramics community, John returned in the summer of 2023, this time assisting Brooks Oliver in his mold-making class. John had this to say about the effect that Penland has had upon their artistic journey:
As a ceramicist who has largely charted my own course through self-study, these experiences at Penland were invaluable. Assisting these renowned instructors not only honed my technical abilities but also provided a crucial link to the wider ceramics community. The knowledge, guidance, and camaraderie I gained at Penland have been instrumental in shaping my artistic path. So much so that I now share a studio in Philadelphia with a former core fellow (Molly Bernstein) and former work-study student (Claire Whitehurst), both of whom I met during my incredible time there in the fall of 2022. This shared space fosters a constant dialogue and exchange of ideas, further enriching my artistic journey.
We are honored to have John as the 39th Annual Penland Benefit Auction Mug Maker.