Five Minutes With... James Lemon
Ruth, 2021, stoneware, glaze, 130 x 135 mm.
Known for his tactile ceramic vessels and sculptures, we spend five minutes with
Melbourne-based artist James Lemon.
Images courtesy of the artist.
Talk us through your first-time using clay. What made you get started in ceramics?
I’m pretty sure there’s a pic of me as a toddler with a face full of mud in my grandmother’s perfectly scrapbooked photo albums. That might be the first time I used clay. At the time, I was using it less for artistic reasons and more for the flavour. After 20 years, I rediscovered the material. This was by making pottery with a bf. I was working at a pub and itching for an outlet to satisfy my unexplainable drives to create.
What has kept me with ceramics is its tactile and unforgiving nature. The attraction is physical and intuitive, rather than cerebral.
“I’m pretty sure there’s a pic of me as a toddler with a face full of mud in my grandmother’s perfectly scrapbooked photo albums. That might be the first time I used clay.”
Gestural abstraction features heavily in your pieces for
Ceramica Maxima, what draws you to this technique of surface decoration?
I’m inclined to lie and say it allows me to express myself but I’ll be honest, there’s a state of mind I access when I’m painting or glazing. The ceramic vessels become these ever changing canvases that I get to reflect upon in dynamic ways. During this process, I’m forced to make irreversible choices that are both deeply uncomfortable and addictive. I am led both by intuition and aesthetic goals. I feel a desire to realise something I can feel... but through colour, texture, action and fire. It feels like exercise for my brain. Not because doing so stimulates cognitive growth but because it hurts. I kind of hate doing it and I have to force myself to. Yet I love it, and it makes me feel good.
James Lemon amongst his Bump range of drinkware and vessels.
Lemon’s studio space and store in Northcote, Melbourne featuring his favourite object ‘old greeney’ the moss green couch.
Describe your studio to us, do you have a favourite object in this space?
My studio is a big room, it is an old auto shop that I’ve painted white. Originally, it was supposed to be a shared working space with the guys I sublet off. I’m not sure whether they got busy, or if I just absorbed the entirety of the space, but they gave up their portion of the space… so that is really up to interpretation.
A section facilitates my retail needs and others are dedicated to my workspace and where I teach my workshops. I can’t tell if I need a bigger space or if I need to stop hoarding so many different materials. I intend to use them but never seem to make a dent.
My favourite object is a vintage moss green couch that I inherited from my friend, Myles. My preference is to be horizontal as much as I can and old greeney enables this perfectly.
What inspires you to keep creating?
There’s nothing quite like a global pandemic to bring the purpose of your work into raw, unadulterated sharp relief. It got me down for a bit. It is ultimately embarrassing and humourless to recite memes; but there was this one meme I saw during lockdown that featured a dog in a burning room saying ‘do you wanna buy a painting’. That deep feeling of futility hurt me quite a lot, but I did end up coming out of that with a lot of poise and grace when people kept buying my work. At my core I’m an optimist. Optimism is one side of a coin, the other might be pessimism and it’s the flipping of the coin that keeps me inspired to keep creating. I think I’m always trying to find some kind of balance.
James Lemon’s work joins that of nine celebrated Australian ceramic artists in Ceramica Maxima now showing at JamFactory at Seppeltsfield until 11 July 2021.
Selected works from this exhibition are available to purchase.
James Lemon
Aotearoa (New Zealand) born artist James Lemon began creating ceramics in 2015. Working from his studio in Northcote, Melbourne, Lemon creates highly tactile, playful objects with function.
Lemon’s work can be found in shops and galleries across Australia with his work recently joining the National Gallery of Victoria’s permanent collection.
Hosea, 2021, stoneware, glaze, 160 x 150 mm.