Soozie Large

Soozie works primarily in ceramics these days, terra cotta exclusively (she’s very passionate about red clay) and printmaking in mostly wood cut and monoprint wood cut combo. She has been at RWS for seven or eight years.

Right now she’s working on a series of plates inspired by a praxinoscope (see an example in the video below), an invention that has images drawn on the inside of a drum. At the center of the drum is a ring of mirrors that when spun make the drawings come to life, like a dancing skeleton. This playfulness is thematic in all her work, often involving stripes, animals or nursery rhymes. She is inspired by everything around her including other ceramic artists and printmakers, but she’s mostly inspired by things she picks up off the street and things she sees in the world like manhole covers, building textures and patterns. When she went to Venice with some friends for the Biennale art exhibit one year she was captivated by the wacky doorbells and mailboxes that look like faces on the side of ancient buildings. She has an appreciation for the things that feel odd in the everyday.

She does not like shiny ceramics and she makes all of her own colors for this reason. “It’s a process called terra sigillata which means ‘sealed earth',” a technique used in ancient Greek and Roman times that seals the earthenware to make it water resistant. “The process involves taking the white clay body and adding sodium silica and a little bit of stain to make the colors. You paint many layers on and burnish the hell out of it. And if you're lucky it gets this nice sheen. It gives a softer look. Less ceramic ceramic.” She does glaze the inside. All of her work is handmade. She doesn’t throw pots because “It’s too hard,” she says. “Terra sigillata is a low-fire thing. You can’t get the colors in the higher fire, so it’s good with terra cotta. The terra sigillata terra cotta and hand built-ness is a great trifecta.” She uses every little bit of clay. For her, the process is economical and playful. Right now She’s big into vases, vases with a wide rim so that you can grab a bunch of flowers and throw them in.

Soozie makes art because she has to. She can’t do anything else, so she says. Her mother was an artist and she would try to get Soozie to draw. Soozie hated the idea of drawing; she wanted to do anything but draw. Then, in her early twenties after she graduated with a degree in philosophy, a friend enrolled in the Portland School of Art (now Maine College of Art). Soozie was between things, living in the woods and delivering newspapers, so she started drawing like mad and got in with a focus on printmaking. She also had an art supply store for about a decade as well as a gallery and frame shop.

Her work can be found in two galleries, The Good Supply in Pemaquid (@thegoodsupply) and the Center for Maine Craft in West Gardiner, Maine (@maine_crafts_association). She is working on a website, and in the meantime you can DM Soozie through Facebook or Instagram (@ritasrim*).

*The name Rita is inspired by a 60 year old Rita gas stove her husband moved here from LA. Rita’s Rim comes from thinking about making hot sauce and starting a business called Rita’s Atlantic Rim. “Everyone talks about the Pacific Rim, but not the Atlantic Rim. I don't know if there even is one...”.