Art & Life with Annette Provenzo

Today we’d like to introduce you to Annette Provenzo.

Annette, please kick things off for us by telling us about yourself and your journey so far.
I’ve been artistic for as long as I can remember. I started drawing early and had innate talent for it. Soon I discovered painting and my affinity toward watercolor illustration, dabbling with sculpting when I could. I illustrated a couple privately-published children’s books, but was never able to get a lot of momentum in that field. My career as a ceramic artist began to take form a few years ago, shortly after taking my first (and only, so far) college-level ceramics class at Paradise Valley Community College. During the class, I deepened my love for sculpture and settled into my niche. During that semester, I developed a design for a unique kitty mug that eventually became the staple product that I built my business, Happy Kitty Ceramics, around. Since then, I’ve been self-teaching techniques and honing my skills and concepts. Last December, I had my first solo show at the Skyline Lofts gallery, and I am scheduled for another solo exhibit at Practical Art in February of 2019. I also do a lot of art fairs throughout the year in various locations around Arizona.

Can you give our readers some background on your art?
I like to create whimsical, imaginative pieces with fine porcelain using hand building techniques. The “why” behind my work varies from piece to piece, but it’s all basically driven by a compulsive need to create – to give form to my ideas. It’s amazing to conceive of something and create a physical object through many hours of labor and attention to detail. Letting ideas evolve as they come into being as a physical form is crucial to success in my work. My sculptures tend to meditate on the natural world and Earth’s need for more conservation efforts to preserve the endangered. This theme informs the majority of my more conceptual work these days. I hope my art sparks imagination. I hope viewers create their own narratives as they experience them, and I hope it reminds them of the wonders of nature and our place on this amazing planet as humans with the power to do great good or great evil to all of known life’s collective home.

But it’s not all so deep – some of it, like my Happy Kitty Mugs™ are just plain cute without trying to have deep meaning. I’ve always maintained it’s okay to just make something beautiful for the sake of it.

What responsibility, if any, do you think artists have to use their art to help alleviate problems faced by others? Has your art been affected by issues you’ve concerned about?
I don’t know if the role of artists has changed, I think our role has always been to express something, and the something being expressed is what changes. It’s up to the individual artist what role they want to play – what they feel is most important to say. Right now, I’m most concerned about environmental issues, and that’s most heavily reflected in my art. Now that I think of it, I’ve also noticed the Me Too/Times Up movements also popping up in my concepts lately – the struggle between aggressors and victims and the concept of sexual agency and consent, and the complexities of gender dynamics. Everything happening around us seeps into our psyche and comes out again in our work, so it’s impossible not to be influenced to some degree, consciously or not, by the social situations we observe and experience.

What’s the best way for someone to check out your work and provide support?
You can see my work on my website, Instagram and Facebook and in my Etsy shop. The best way to support my work is to purchase it! Right now, I’m one of the lucky ones getting to pursue her passion full time. I get a lot of custom orders for portrait Happy Kitty Mugs™ (and dogs, too) and sculptures. My little people pots are quite popular, and my intricately textured Moonface Vases have also been catching on lately. I create a wide variety of items and am always open to creating something new on commission. If you keep an eye on my social media, you will see what events I sell at throughout the year.

Contact Info:

• Website: happykittyceramics.com
• Email: happykittyceramics@gmail.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/happykittyceramics
• Facebook: facebook.com/happykittyceramics
• Other: etsy.com/shop/happykittyceramics

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