Feature Artist: Vivian Saich

By Gina Malone

Vivian Saich was always interested in art, taking as many classes in the field as she could. She set out to obtain a degree in Graphic Arts, but was put off by how technical it was becoming at the time and left school. “I preferred creating with my hands,” she says. She had learned to throw on the potter’s wheel and enjoyed it, but accepted a job as an international sales rep and, upon moving to Asheville in 2000, earned her NC Real Estate Broker’s License and worked in real estate sales.

Years later, when she lost her father and a brother and decided she needed a break from real estate, it was art she sought as a way of finding her way again. “I took five years to reinvent myself and started working on improving my skills as a ceramic artist with the hopes of establishing myself as a member of the River Arts District,” she says. “I signed up for a beginner’s wheel throwing class at Odyssey ClayWorks and joined RADA (River Arts District Artists) and the Asheville Area Arts Council. Finally, when I felt ready to commit, I rented my little studio shelf space at Odyssey Center for the Ceramic Arts.”

She began by making teapots and mugs, while experimenting with different surface decorating techniques and glazes. “Miraculously, my little handmade items were selling,” she says. “I was beginning to feel like a tiny part of this amazing artistic community. This was the beginning—and if it weren’t for my husband’s support throughout the first few years, I would not have been able to stop working long enough to believe myself capable of getting this far.”

For a time after opening her studio space, her mother stayed in the studio alongside her as she worked. “She was in her nineties and suffered from dementia,” Saich says. “At first, I used to bring her to the studio and she would sit beside me and roll little balls of clay while I threw pots on the wheel. Everyone who met her loved my mom. She was an artist herself and a pioneer female architect in the Caribbean, among the first to be allowed to sign off on projects. Before, only men were allowed.”

It was her mother who always encouraged her and her brother, buying them art supplies and enrolling them in art classes. “She was proud of us and would say that our rhythm and creativity was in our DNA and that it was from her side of the family,” Saich says. “She taught me many drawing techniques like perspective, depth of field, direction of light and use of shadow.”

When it became difficult to keep her mother there, Saich gave up her studio space and cared for her mother at home. “During our time together at home, I rarely was able to play with clay,” she says. “It so happened that on one of those rare days when I was able to, I rediscovered how much I enjoyed hand building and began piercing, carving and sculpting, the technique of removing material to create new designs. I didn’t have a studio, wheel or kiln so I worked on the dining room table after everyone went to bed.”

Saich revisited a technique she had first tried while at the university—making a sphere using an inflatable ball. “I had altered it with my thumbs to mold it into an organic-looking seed pod shape and cut out a lid to make a carved box,” she says. “The clay I was using was white stoneware. The form needed something more so I began cutting holes into it. I covered the form with holes and began carving and digging material around the holes and while doing so it was like the vines and design were in the clay wanting to come out.”

Eventually, to achieve the color she wanted, she began using porcelain for a matte and pure white finish. “Porcelain is fragile to work with for hand building,” she says. “Managing the moisture levels is important and understanding what it can handle at the various stages of dryness is key because it has the tendency to crack and slump, but it is a very strong material once it is fired.” She studied the processes of ceramic artists she admired. “It wasn’t until after my mother’s passing that I returned to Odyssey Studios and began working on building a body of work in porcelain consisting of both functional and decorative works,” Saich says.

“I feel compelled to do my art because of how it makes me feel connected and, I think, because I failed to work at it for most of my adult life,” Saich says. “Now, I am truly grateful for the time that I have to work at it and for the inspiring, supportive and artistic community that is here in Asheville at Odyssey and in the RADA.”

Find Vivian Saich’s work at The Odyssey Center for the Ceramic Arts, 238 Clingman Avenue Extension. Visit OdysseyGalleryofCeramicArts.com.