Molly Hatch – Take Magazine https://thetakemagazine.com New England's New Culture Wed, 25 Apr 2018 22:03:53 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=4.9.18 https://thetakemagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/cropped-TakeFav-2-32x32.png Molly Hatch – Take Magazine https://thetakemagazine.com 32 32 Kilnfolk https://thetakemagazine.com/kilnfolk/ https://thetakemagazine.com/kilnfolk/#respond Mon, 20 Mar 2017 07:00:29 +0000 https://thetakemagazine.com/?p=8852 With a little help from Elenor Wilson of Studio Potter, we introduce you to the region’s coolest ceramics artists. This article originally appeared in our June/July 2016 print issue. The popularity of ceramics is on the rise. Both established artists and novices “discovering” the medium are popping up all over the place, which doesn’t surprise me in

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]]> With a little help from Elenor Wilson of Studio Potter, we introduce you to the region’s coolest ceramics artists.

This article originally appeared in our June/July 2016 print issue.

Illustration by Jan Šabach

Illustration by Jan Šabach

The popularity of ceramics is on the rise. Both established artists and novices “discovering” the medium are popping up all over the place, which doesn’t surprise me in the least. For one, clay is the original open-source media: it is a viscous lump of mud with which anyone can record action, express creativity, and tell their story. For two, ceramics is old, really old: the first known fired clay object—the Venus of Dolní Věstonice, a 4½-inch-tall female figure discovered in Moravia (Czech Republic)—is about 32,000 years old.

In North America, people have been firing clay pots for over 20,000 years, but what we picture when we think about American ceramics, particularly in New England, is probably something European-influenced and less than 300 years old. Maybe you’ve seen a beige stoneware jug donning a swiftly painted cobalt-blue flower, or a statuesque vase covered in a thick, matte, “Gruby-green” glaze, or that collection of commemorative plates hanging on the wall in your grandmother’s house? Each of these examples is part of a historical lineage of skill, knowledge, and cultural signifiers that has been passed along from generation to generation and traded across cultures since Ms. Věstonice was formed.

Roberto Lugo, Ol' Dirty Bastard (ODB), 2015, porcelian, glaze, china paint, 11.5 x 11.5 x 21.5 in | Photo by Kenek Photography, courtesy of Wexler Gallery

Roberto Lugo, Ol’ Dirty Bastard (ODB), 2015, porcelian, glaze, china paint, 11.5 x 11.5 x 21.5 in | Photo by Kenek Photography, courtesy of Wexler Gallery

Today, ceramicists use the medium’s rich history and versatility to design both functional wares—everything from piggy banks to pendant lamps—and sculptural works of art, the most intriguing of which challenge our understanding of what “ceramics” is. Thus, they continue to build on a common, ancient language of materials and techniques, writing new chapters in the story of us. By “us” I don’t just mean the contemporary artists you’ll meet in the next few pages and their kin, I mean ALL of us—humankind.

Michael Boroniec
Molly Hatch
Hideaki Miyamura
Robert Lugo
Top photo detail from Illume, 2016 by Molly Hatch | Photo by John Polak

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]]> https://thetakemagazine.com/kilnfolk/feed/ 0 #Nofilter New England https://thetakemagazine.com/igz/ https://thetakemagazine.com/igz/#respond Tue, 15 Nov 2016 00:24:46 +0000 https://thetakemagazine.com/?p=5669 From food to tattoos, flowers to hotels, fill your Instagram feed with some of our favorite New England IGrs. Here’s our list of the movers and shakers, culture-makers that are documenting their artistic ploys and political rants on your fav social media platform. Take a look at New England through Instagram because on insta everyone’s

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]]> From food to tattoos, flowers to hotels, fill your Instagram feed with some of our favorite New England IGrs.

Here’s our list of the movers and shakers, culture-makers that are documenting their artistic ploys and political rants on your fav social media platform. Take a look at New England through Instagram because on insta everyone’s a photographer.

@hotelonnorth

Hotel on North is arguably the most photogenic place to stay in the region. Made from two 19th century buildings in downtown Pittsfield this place is anything but the pits. Between the claw foot tubs and the keep-sake quality local trimmings and trappings in each unique room, this place is most definitely instagram-worthy.

@snowsculpt


Dave Rothstein is a snow sculptor and famed donut photographer. He’s a renaissance man of the 21st century and his Instagram account—which includes vegetables dressed with googly eyes, Spock holding a donut hole, and close ups of nature that’ll make you take a closer look at the beauty in your own surroundings—stands testament to that.

@thewadsworth

The Wadsworth Atheneum is the oldest public museum of its kind in the country, founded in 1842, but it’s aging quite well.

@breakfastxlunchxdinner

#NEGUSpublication 10/26/16 @ 7PM EST 760 Chapel St. c/o @grieretelosbo

A video posted by BL&D (@breakfastxlunchxdinner) on

The tastemakers of Hartford, CT are on Instagram and it looks good. Follow this crew for event updates, artist profiles and all things contemporary and cool in Connecticut.

@sad13

honestly promoting this new record today feels like a misuse of time when there’s so much in my country to protest against and organize towards. but… to those of u telling me my record’s getting u through the hurt & disbelief of this week, i hear you & appreciate that more than u know. that said, THE SAD13 BAND starts its first U.S. tour tomorrow w/ some amazing bands. hope to see u there. this beautiful poster is by @cdirck. if you need help getting to the show safely or to get in touch in any way, you can always find me here or at sad13sadie@gmail.com excited to see all my friends throughout the country, excited to wear my new american flag-printed kicks & remind myself that this country at its best is about love & community, and not those other hateful things some bigots would have you believe tickets at sadthirteen.com

A photo posted by Sadie Dupuis (@sad13) on


Sad13 is the fierce, feminist solo-project by “frontdemon” of Speedy Ortiz. She just released a new album “Slugger” and did a reddit AMA in a Sailor Moon wig (okay, YAS). Sad13 aka Sadie is the ultimate celeb crush and my forever #wcw. Visit her account for all things pro-love!

@loopvintageupcycle


This Insta takes the retro cake in satisfying all your delightfully kitschy mid-century needs. We had a feeling you would ask, and the answer is yes, they have an Etsy shop: LINKY. The best part? You can invite your friends for a dinner party and brag that your 60-year-old Alvin and the Chipmunks themed glassware set is probably one of a kind.

@wildfolkstudio


Somerville florist, Caroline O’Donnell Instagram will make you want to die and be reincarnated as a flower in one of her arrangements. There is literally nothing more perfect than her subdued purples and pinks and muted earth tones, and the filters don’t hurt either.

@mollyhatch

Molly Hatch is a designer, illustrator, drawer, author, creator-I could go on. Her Instagram is painfully cute and framed in pastels that upon scrolling through will make your stress melt away. Beware, her flawless composition and frequent enviable tea parties will probably make you resent your own Instagram.

@matthealeyphoto

As his handle suggests, Matt is a badass photog with a knack for portraits. His feed is littered with humans-in-action AKA ~athletes~ and as you can see, pretty priceless game faces.

@Narrangansett

The #OfficialBeerOfBrunch is back!!! #ASwallowWillTellYou

A photo posted by Narragansett Beer (@gansettbeer) on

It’s beer season! Well, it’s always beer season. ‘gansett’s vintage-inspired cans will take you back to the days of pick-up ice hockey on the local frozen pond. Plus, the outdoors-y Rhode Island imagery will give you the feels for Fall.

@bostonhassle

Boston Hassle is your volunteer-run DIY info flow on everything underground and ~kewl~.

@shady.pines.sleddogs

Midweek motivation, on this day. #heroichearts

A video posted by Sally Manikian (@shady.pines.sleddogs) on

Post-election stress got you feeling some type of way? Look no further. These dogs aren’t just cute, they’re also smarter than your honor student. These puppers are Sally Manikan’s small to mid-distance racing team residing in the White Mountains of NH and they want to be your BFFs.

@laughingloone

Laughing Loone is the pseudonym of Noel’le Longhaul’s online tattoo persona. Her Instagram is home to dark, ethereal masterpieces on fleshy canvas. She’s also in three bands. In short, there is no one cooler than Noel’le.

@pizzablonde

I've got my @dominos, I've got my ?? rosé, and I'm ready to go. #electionnight

A photo posted by Pizza Blonde ??? (@pizzablonde) on

This is proof—blondes do in fact have more fun. Pizzablonde is essentially living out everyone’s dreams- ya’ll dream about cheese too, right? Right?! By acquainting her tastebuds—and in turn, our insta feeds—with every form pizza can morph into, (i.e. sandwich, spaghetti, and smore) the world can finally see all that pizza can truly be.

@shanelavalette

#agnesmartin @guggenheim

A photo posted by Shane Lavalette (@shanelavalette) on

Shane, hailing from Burlington, VT is #instaporn for black and white photography enthusiasts. The way he plays with the duality of shadows in his pictures will give you a chill and leave you feeling confused in a good way.

Top photo courtesy Wild Folk Studio Instagram page

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]]> https://thetakemagazine.com/igz/feed/ 0 Off the Walls https://thetakemagazine.com/off-walls-ceramicist-designer-artist-molly-hatch/ https://thetakemagazine.com/off-walls-ceramicist-designer-artist-molly-hatch/#respond Mon, 05 Sep 2016 23:56:27 +0000 https://thetakemagazine.com/?p=2285 Western Massachusetts ceramist, designer, and artist Molly Hatch breaks molds and boundaries. Approaching Molly Hatch’s ceramic studio on the third floor of Florence, Massachusetts’ Arts and Industry building, every single footstep resounds through the hallways. That’s the way of former mill buildings. This one, solid and comfortable with its little bit of dustiness and roughness,

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]]> Western Massachusetts ceramist, designer, and artist Molly Hatch breaks molds and boundaries.

Approaching Molly Hatch’s ceramic studio on the third floor of Florence, Massachusetts’ Arts and Industry building, every single footstep resounds through the hallways. That’s the way of former mill buildings. This one, solid and comfortable with its little bit of dustiness and roughness, leaves plenty of space for artists to remake its purpose.

For Hatch, the spot’s pitch-perfect, a leisurely walk from her house and design studio with her black dog, Hank. “When you’re a young person dreaming of the studio you’d one day work in, this is what you envision,” she explains. In Sunday mode, which is not unlike artist-at-work mode — jeans, a striped blue and white tee, and sneaks, auburn hair pulled into a high ponytail — Hatch is ready to lift plates from one of her kilns. The plates belong to an installation titled Illume for Todd Merrill Studio Contemporary in Manhattan. This “plate painting” depicts a blue and white vase, surrounded by a shiny, solid gold “frame.” Each plate that helps comprise the vase is painterly, simultaneously a swath of the overall pattern and a complete work of art in itself.

Hatch is known for her plate paintings, installations that rely upon individual painted plates organized to create a larger image. The first series, Covet, showed at Sculpture Objects Functional Art and Design (SOFA) in New York in 2012. For that, she drew upon the collections of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Probably the best known—and the largest to date—of the plate paintings is Physic Garden, a permanent installation at Atlanta’s High Museum that measures 22 feet high and 17 feet wide, and required 456 plates to complete. Two 1750s Chelsea Factory plates that depict realistic flora and fauna in the “Hans Sloane” style served as source material for the project. Hatch finds the setting of Physic Garden in the museum’s Margaretta Taylor Lobby inspired. “There’s a window, and beyond the window, a reflecting pool,” she explains. “At night the wall, window, and reflecting pool move you, your eyes, in and out of the space. The architect put in an exhibition wall at exactly the right spot so that the work and the space are phenomenal fits for one another.”

Physic Garden

Physic Garden 2013/14| Photo courtesy of High Museum of Art in Atlanta, Georgia

Her latest big project, Passage, a solo show at the Dianich Gallery in Brattleboro, Vermont, co-presented with Todd Merrill Studio Contemporary, is a departure from the plate paintings. “The plate paintings rely upon the boundaries of the wall,” says Hatch. “I want to question the wall. I’m interested in making three-dimensional paintings that reveal different images from various angles.”

One way to sum up Hatch’s voraciousness as artist and designer is this — she’s a consummate conversationalist. Rather than rely on words, her conversations take place between past and present, commercial design and fine art, boundaries and space.

While she was creating Passage, which runs through July, her studio space was relatively empty. The sole full wall—no doors or windows or shelving—was blank. The floor was mostly bare, save for kilns sitting like urns and a number of large ceramic blocks—clean, white, and ready—in neat piles. The blocks were impressive, not exactly massive, and yet notably larger than most ceramic objects. Imagine ceramic versions of wooden blocks found in a preschool classroom—but large and somewhat wondrous, like an Alice in Wonderland teacup.

Detail from Passages - Hatch

Detail from Passage | Photo by John Polak courtesy of Molly Hatch Studios

Hatch painted the blocks in different patterns, from a Middle Eastern tile to a weaving. These patterns generally do not “go together.” In the gallery, the blocks are set upon wooden and ceramic plinths painted in patterns and faux wood grain. Passage evolves from a series of cube vases Hatch recently created, objects that aren’t functional vases, but cubes with cutouts in the shape of vases to play upon both the idea of functionality and, simultaneously, negative space. For Passage, she posed a related question: “Do I need that cutout?”

As for the big blocks: “I wanted a chance to pull my work into space. I wanted it to come off the walls,” Hatch explains. “The idea is the pieces could be played with and restacked. I want to explore pattern and form, but in a three-dimensional space.”

Patterns often seen on functional objects, from vases to wallpaper, cover these non-functional forms. As if that idea isn’t sufficiently intriguing, Hatch plays with other juxtapositions. Some patterns are from history and others are more contemporary ones that tend to show up in a design context rather than art. She wants to lure them from functionality to see how they fare.

The Dianich Gallery is much more intimate than other places Hatch has exhibited. “I was drawn to that—and the chance to reach a different audience,” Hatch says. “In this setting, I’m able to focus upon a small, pointed project—and to take some risks within the constraints of this venue—a small gallery in a small town close to home.“

Hatch’s childhood and family background have a great deal to do with her sense that perpetual conversations arise from juxtaposing things people don’t often put together. Her parents eschewed a world of refined society and instead moved to southern Vermont, where they farmed. Décor at the farmhouse was unusual: Art and antiques in her family’s home and extended family’s residences were, like pieces she plays off of in her own art and design work, beautiful and significant and fine and enduring.

Covet Project: 2012 | Photo by John Polak courtesy of Molly Hatch Studios

Covet Project: 2012 | Photo by John Polak courtesy of Molly Hatch Studios

As an adult, Hatch contemplates the role of beauty and delicacy, but she does so in the milieu of simple, hard work. She is a powerhouse. She credits her work ethic to her upbringing on the farm and her aesthetics in large part to family influences and exposure. “To have grown up with old-money objects and the farm’s demands, lessons I drew upon were complex—about taste and lifestyle,” she says. “I love that I interact with these questions on a daily basis.”

Interior design is another of Hatch’s influences. “I read interior design magazines to see what interests designers,” she says. “For example, I love the idea of putting an old object on a mantel and a contemporary cutout vase and pretty much encouraging the objects to talk to one another.”

That sets the stage for a paradigm that makes sense to Hatch. “When I first began to do design work for Anthropologie, some ceramic artists thought I was selling out. I disagreed and I still disagree,” she says. “I need to focus on creation of both the consumable and the unique object, and, rather than see those as oppositional choices, I find them complementary.”

She constantly extends ideas developed in one realm into another—she might create a one-of-a-kind vase and then make a series of commercial vases that are decorated with her paintings of vases. “I love to operate in consort, and to see where designs land best.” She maintains enthusiasm for the large plate paintings or the new work in “Passage,” and she also enjoys her ongoing work with Anthropologie. The way Hatch works—process and breadth—represents her unique heritage.

Kilnfolk.June16

Image at top: Molly Hatch | Photo by John Polak, illustration by Jan Šabach

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