While a visiting artist sculpted clay into art, UCF students gathered around her to learn about her work and experience in the Visual Arts Building on Wednesday.
“I hope everyone got a little bit of happiness tonight,” Janina Myronova, a professional ceramics artist, said during her presentation.
Myronova was born in Ukraine and has traveled all over the world for artist work residencies. She currently works at The Clay Studio in Philadelphia, but she has worked and taken residencies in Taiwan, the Netherlands, Germany, China and many other places.
Several students were particularly interested in her world-traveling experience, but it was one particular stop in China that interested Mei Lin Howard, senior studio art ceramics major: Jingdezhen, the porcelain capital of China. Howard said she was born there, but was adopted and has little connection to her birthplace now. After Myronova’s demonstration, Howard approached her to ask about Myronova’s time there.
“It’s always been some place that I’ve wanted to go back to at some point and now that I’m doing ceramics, even more so,” Howard said.
While this isn’t the first time professional artists have visited UCF, it’s still a new experience for some students, like Kathleen Harton, senior studio art major. Harton said this was her first time going to a workshop with a world-renowned artist.
“It’s just really inspiring getting to hear more of the personal background behind the artists and their connection with their work, and specifically hear all the different places she’s been to,” Harton said.
Visiting artist, Janina Myronova demonstrates handbuilding techniques at the Visual Arts Building on Wednesday. Myronova led the workshop by switching between two different art pieces.
Beginning early in the day, Myronova led a demonstration workshop in the ceramic studio of the VAB, where she crafted two different sculptures out of clay while answering questions from students.
“It’s just really interesting to see and it sort of inspires me and makes me wanna go out and do different things in different places,” Howard said.
Afterwards, Myronova went to another classroom for a presentation. Here, she explained her career by showing students samples of her work in porcelain, clay and glass, telling them about the various residencies she’s participated in and the countries she lived in during that time.
Assistant Professor Megan Thomas is the one who invited Myronova to UCF. Thomas met Myronova at a two-year residence in Montana last year and thought Myronova would be a great person to talk to students due to her work ethic and traveling experience.
“I really appreciate her sense of humor in her work,” Thomas said. “I think it’s got a lot that’s relatable to a wide audience. I think she’s really great at connecting with people.”
Thomas also said she invited Myronova because most of the ceramic artists they’ve had before were potters, a type of artist who creates pottery with clay, and she wanted to introduce students to a broader range of techniques.
“I really love the mixed media of different 3D [art], especially the glass with the porcelain,” Harton said. “I never considered that really before and now I’ve just got all these different ideas in my head about different 3D objects combining together now, so that’s really cool.”