ARTIST STATEMENT BY JOEL CHERRICO
"I believe clay is magic. Devoting my life to living as a potter has taught me that art can reveal truths about our relationship to nature. Art helps us connect to the cosmos, and to each other. Ceramic art, specifically the art of the pottery mug, offers unique opportunities to experience powerful emotions over a simple cup of coffee."
SHORT BIOGRAPHY OF JOEL CHERRICO
Joel Cherrico is a potter. He has spent over 20 years and 20,000 hours living as a full-time potter. Trained in historical Japanese pottery, his timeless art uses traditional techniques to create radical, new styles of pottery, sculpture and performance art. His art is inspired by humanity’s relationship with the natural world. Sometimes, this is expressed by a simple, rustic color or shape. Other times, he exposes the farthest reaches of nature, like planetary geology and interstellar cosmic phenomena, over a simple cup of coffee. Many of his most popular performance art videos have also even explored ancient Greek and Roman myths, probing deeply into previously unseen parts of the human condition. In 2016, he set a Guinness World Record for, ‘most pots thrown in one hour by an individual’ at 159, using his historical, Karatsu style kickwheel. He has written as an author for the American Craft Council. Cherrico has handcrafted, sold and shipped over 60,000 pieces of his ceramic art directly to thousands of collectors globally. Numerous celebrity friendships and partnerships in New York City, Los Angeles and Austin, TX have exposed his art to millions more people globally. His performance art videos have grown millions of followers across the most popular social media platforms @cherricopottery, gotten over two billion views, and been featured on a digital billboard in Times Square. Joel Cherrico was born in 1988, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, United States. He lives and works in his 3,000 square foot studio, with 100% solar electric offset, on his home property in Minnesota, USA with his wife and two young children.
@CHERRICOPOTTERY SOCIAL MEDIA
1.4M SUBSCRIBERS: youtube.com/@cherricopottery
750K FOLLOWERS: instagram.com/cherricopottery
500K FOLLOWERS: tiktok.com/@cherricopottery
400K FOLLOWERS: facebook.com/CherricoPottery
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
My name is Joel Cherrico and I'm a potter. I wrote this in mostly chronological order, with a whole bunch missing. But this will give you a glimpse into my life as a potter so far, and my philosophies on why I believe working towards mastery of the art of pottery can positively affect the lives of people globally.
At 18 years old, for some odd reason, I decided that I wanted to figure out how to make a living as a potter. My hope is to inspire people to think deeply about art, humanity and our place in the Universe over a cup of coffee.
Pottery started for me in high school. I graduated from Xavier High School in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, US in 2006, winning the class award for "Outstanding Achievement in Art."
In high school, I kept "Body of Clay, Soul of Fire: Richard Bresnahan and the St. John's Pottery" by Matthew Welch across from my pottery wheel. It inspired me to move to Minnesota, to be closer to this studio, and learn more about these aesthetics and artistic environmentalism.
In 2006, I enrolled at the College of St. Benedict/St. John's University. After switching from Biology/Pre-Medicine to Art Major freshman year, I decided that I wanted to figure out how to create a career as a full-time potter. I studied pottery, sculpture, installation, kiln design and entrepreneurship.
In 2010, I graduated with a degree in Art (Distinction) magna cum laude.
Woodburning kiln I helped design and build at JD Jorgenson Pottery, 2007.
During college, my goal was to treat my college experience as a four year pottery apprenticeship. Two years working two unpaid internships at JD Jorgenson Pottery taught me first hand about the hard work and dedication involved in building a pottery studio. JD's work ethic and dedication to natural materials inspired me to explore a rustic aesthetics, and working on a large scale.
Working in the college Ceramics Studio all four years gave me more experience with technical aspects of ceramics, while supervising and teaching other students. Samuel Johnson was the key mentor who guided me during this job. Sam's art, philosophies and perspective on living as a potter affected me to my core.
Both Samuel Johnson and JD Jorgenson apprenticed with Richard Bresnahan at the St. John's Pottery.
Three months working in the St. John's Woodshop also gave me woodworking experience, and a space to build shelving for my first solo pottery exhibition in the student gallery in 2007.
During the end of my third year in college, I switched from pottery production to abstract sculpture. This led to the start of my senior thesis and Mindscape: Abstract Art Installation with over 1,000 Ceramic Sculptures.
After exploring abstract sculpture and installation, I felt compelled to return to pottery with new aesthetic interests. I also wanted to create artwork that people could eat and drink from everyday, with a goal of making pottery that embodied the "awe factor" of Mindscape.
I started by the bus stop, selling pots for about $10 each and made over $5,000 during college years, giving me research to support a potential business idea.
After graduating, I was awarded a Post-Baccalaureate Artist Residency from CSB/SJU. This provided facility to mass produce pottery, while using sales of my artwork to launch a small business venture.
Since 2010, I have made artwork full-time in St. Joseph, Minnesota, US. I began by selling my art at a local coffee shop, where community members could eat and drink from my pottery everyday. We developed an innovative business model to enrich the restaurant with my handmade pottery, while providing an interactive art experience.
Next, I decided to change the direction of my business from mostly local sales to mostly global pottery sales and shipping pottery worldwide. My goal was to use my newest body of artwork, which I decided to call, "Cosmic Mugs," to create a coffee mug that could more universally reach people. I was published to thousands of people published in Laughing Squid and Ceramics TECHNICAL.
In 2015, Cosmic Mugs raised $34,099 on Kickstarter and were shipped to 16 countries. This project helped validate the idea that Cosmic Mugs could be truly innovative, revolutionary pieces of functional artwork. It also allowed me to spend time on deep practice to attempt and achieve the pottery Guinness World Records™ title for 'most pots thrown in one how by an individual.'
You can also watch this Live interview and pottery demonstration with Guinness World Records in the Cherrico Pottery office:
The "Cosmic Mug Kickstarter" project also validated building cosmicmugs.com.
Cosmic Mugs eventually evolved into Moon Mugs and many new styles.
Pushing the aesthetic further, I created "Cosmic Wall Platters." Two are owned by celebrities Neil deGrasse Tyson and Ryan Holiday.
I also tested designing a "Factory Made Cosmic Mug" to make the art available to more people in higher quantities: creating up to 10,000 mugs in a single month, which takes me 2 years to make by hand. These mugs were made in the only place that has been perfecting the art of mass producing porcelain pottery for about 2,000 years: China. Specifically, a city called Shenzhen, near Hong Kong. Have you ever wondered why "Fine China" is what we call porcelain pottery?
After sourcing and selling 1,000 mugs, I ended the project.
In 2017, my Facebook Live videos got massively popular on my Cherrico Pottery Facebook page. I also Live streamed for 1-2 hours on guest pages, and some individual videos were watched by millions of people.
While continuing to grow Cherrico Pottery, I married the love of my life, Sienna Dubbeldee-Kuhn Cherrico, who now also works full-time at Cherrico Pottery. Sienna was also an Art Major at the College of St. Benedict/St. John's University. Sienna is extremely talented and also makes paper by hand: cherricopottery.com/artofpaper
We traveled twice to NYC to spend time with Neil deGrasse Tyson. His team invited me to write a guest blog post for his website: "Why 'The Starry Night' is Universally Beautiful"
February 2020, Sienna and I purchased a home and studio in rural Minnesota, in the same town where we went to college. Our property has a 3,000 sq. ft. building for our pottery studio and office, where we can handcraft, pack and ship about 500 pots monthly long-term.
MUGSANDBOOKS.COM
Organically I struck up a friendship with world renowned author Steven Pressfield. Steve challenged me to recreate a modern day version of an ancient Spartan warrior mug, used by Greek solders on war campaigns 2,500 years ago: the 'kothon' mug. Steve discovered the mug in ancient Spartan texts. We collaborated on this design and more. After spending time with Steve at his home in Malibu, we created mugsandbooks.com.
COBALT SLAVERY AWARENESS
In 2023, I was profoundly saddened by the rampant cobalt mining slavery in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. I felt compelled raise awareness of these atrocities that affect all of us.
The Truth About Cobalt Slavery in 2023:
Why I'm Discontinuing my Bestselling Pottery
SOLAR FIRED POTTERY
My pottery studio is now 100%+ solar offset, thanks to remarkable work by Tesla and Greenway Solar. Every mug on cosmicmugs.com is fired in my electric pottery kilns to over 1,200 degrees C. and shipped to customers all over the world sustainably, with solar energy.
My pottery studio is now 100% solar offset, thanks to remarkable work by @Tesla and Greenway Solar. Every mug on https://t.co/vzRWkKPSeO is fired in my electric pottery kilns to over 1,200 degrees C. and shipped to customers all over the world sustainably, with solar energy. pic.twitter.com/wjnMIbbbAF
— Joel Cherrico (@cherricopottery) April 19, 2024
STUNTS, 2021-2023
1,000 cups in one day: facebook.com/CherricoPottery/
videos/1231944124238846
100 cups blindfolded: facebook.com/CherricoPottery/
videos/616737700003027
24 hour Moon Mug Marathon: youtube.com/watch?v=iMN7HPir3Zw
EXPONENTIAL SOCIAL MEDIA GROWTH, 2024
2024 also saw exponential growth of my social media @cherricopottery due to my new style of daily video publishing. My YouTube and Instagram alone got 2 billion views. TikTok and Facebook also grew exponentially.
Here is a very small selection of just some of the most popular videos across my diverse social media:
403M views: youtube.com/shorts/1nyfPXT01JU
317M views: instagram.com/p/C_zSWWQMJTt/
200M views: youtube.com/shorts/DzUUhER1qAA
116M views: instagram.com/reel/C6pBGKCpVB8/
95M views: facebook.com/reel/1728307324717077
67M views: tiktok.com/@cherricopottery/
video/7413890189183044907
PATREON.COM/CHERRICOPOTTERY
2017 to today, people have supported my art monthly on Patreon. Not only has support from Patrons been a key to my sustainability and growth, but Patreon CEO Jack Conte and Patreon staff have featured my art in collaborative posts.
Patreon also featured one of my performance art videos on a digital billboard in Times Square, NYC, 1/27-2/2/2025
Support Cherrico Pottery
Thank you very much for taking the time to learn about my art.
Joel Cherrico
