Artist Feature: Sage Sorensen

Natalie “lee” Arneson 

Hi! I’m Sage, and I work with many mediums, but clay is my favorite to manipulate. 

I’m lucky to have been very involved in the ceramic studio during my time here at evergreen. I’ve taken three full time programs that carried me into participating  in an amazing sos (student originated study) this past spring. You may have seen my work at some of those beautiful student curated showcases.  Over the summer I was granted a  surf fellowship, working intensely in the studio using slip casting methods as well as integrating natural material with clay! I now work as a ceramics aide in the school’s studio. 

I love when I make something that I feel proud of, something that people can speculate about and smile at. I love when someone I dont know too well comes up to me to remark on a small detail that made them smile, that’s fucking cool. I want to inspire people to make things for themselves that might reach people how I somehow reach people, or maybe how Salvador Deli reached people something like that.

If you want to see more of my work check out

@sages_pages 

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CPJ: What medium of art do you work with the most? I personally have seen your ceramics the most, but is that your main love?

Sage: That is definitely my main medium, my main artistic passion. I know it the most, I’ve done it the longest, and so it’s the most easy, technically, not always, but it is for me to work on. But I also really like to do other things. Mainly I do 3D mediums. So, right now, I’m actually doing a fine metals class where I’m doing jewelry and things like that, which I’ve been loving and I could definitely see myself taking really far and potentially selling jewelry down the line. I really wanna try and find a way to incorporate ceramics and metals, I don’t know how yet, but we’re working on it. But yeah, ceramics is my main art love for sure.

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CPJ: That’s dope! When did you first start doing ceramics? Has this been pre-college?

Sage: Yeah, so I first started in, I think, my junior year of high school. But maybe before that? Okay, it’s been like 8 years of me doing ceramics.

CPJ: Oh my gosh—what is the Sage lore? Or, what is the history of ceramicist Sage?

Sage: So, for a long time I really hated, hated school, and I found in my high school the ceramics studio and I took one class and I was just in there all the time. I loved being in there, and I got along pretty well with the teacher, and he would let me stay after class and come in early, and all of that. I would actually leave other classes to go be in there because I wanted to keep learning and keep making, and at one point I started to be able to help other students and that made me so excited to take what I was learning and what I knew to be able to help other people. But yeah, ceramics is just my first love i guess.

CPJ: That’s really sweet, I love that. What made you decide to come to Evergreen? Did we have a good ceramics program? I, alas, don’t know much about that side of the school.

Sage: The ceramics program is pretty good here, it’s definitely changed a bit since me being here, personally, due to staffing due to COVID—but actually one of my parent’s really great friends used to go here way back when. So that’s how I found out about the school and for a long time, since I really didn’t like going to school, I was like, “there’s no way I’m going to college, no way” and then I found out about the school; and I’ve always been really interested in the Washington area and it feels more diverse—because I grew up in Salt Lake City, Utah, which is  a very not diverse place. And, I mean, Washington isn’t the most diverse, but there’s a little more happening, I feel like. And so I loved the idea of Washington. It’s just a different type of school, so I felt like this school was more my speed—Oh, and I came to visit with my mom and we drove down the parkway and I was like, “okay, yup. I could go here.” And then I applied, and I got in, and it wasn’t a question of if I was gonna go or not.

CPJ: What inspires your creation process?

Sage: I feel like a lot of times I just get an amalgamation of ideas. If it’s from movies or other artists, or just—okay, a lot of times I just have ideas that I dreamt. Like, while I was sleeping, had a dream and was like “oh, this is a great idea” and I’ll wake up and write it down. I also found that if I don’t make it really soon after I’ve thought of it, I’m never going to make it. So, there’s definitely a big window of there being a making space, right after the idea space. I feel mostly inspired by other things, then I take that and kinda just run with it on my own, and sometimes it definitely depends on what my capabilities are, for sure.

CPJ: Do you think your inspirations have changed or shifted depending on where you find yourself? Like, back in Utah, versus now here at Evergreen? Do you think there’s any influence of a sense of place, or perhaps it’s not even the place but the people you’re surrounded with?

Sage: Definitely, definitely. I feel like moreso here at Evergreen since I’ve found people who are into similar things or artistic things and have their own artistic practices that are very different from mine. If it’s like different mediums, or completely different concepts, I feel like that’s also really inspiring. And I feel like my art has definitely changed, especially who I’m around—I’ve talked about this before with people—especially when I’m in a program where so many of us are so dedicated to what’s going on and we try to spend as much time as possible on the work that we all feel more connected to the work. I definitely feel that way if I’m surrounded by a lot of people who are really engaged and really excited about working.

CPJ: That’s really great. Do you think, now that you’ve been in it for 8 years doing ceramics, do you thrive best in that communal space, where it’s very much community involved?

Sage: Definitely, I feel like I’m more inclined to even go into the studio if I know there’s gonna be people there I can bounce ideas off of, or like talk to them about what they’re learning—because that’s also really inspiring to see how other people are thinking…but sometimes I also do just want to sit and be by myself and make what I’m making. I feel like it depends on what stage of the process I’m in. 

CPJ: For you, in your eyes—because I’ve heard discourse about this before—is art, for you, do you think it’s more of a collective process, an individual process, or just a combination of both as it comes?

Sage: I feel like it depends on what you’re making. Personally, I think it’s more of a collective process because everyone’s gonna gather information or inspiration from everything else to see what’s possible, and so, for me, it’s definitely a collaboration of inspiration and other people—and even with myself. I feel like I’m collaborating with myself, from my past self or even just day to day, gaining new ideas. I feel like that’s a collaborative kind of thing because usually, especially with ceramics, you have things that will sag, or crack completely, or just sometimes things blow up in the kiln, and it’s not something you can control. So you kinda have to work with all those obstacles and be like, “okay, how am I gonna collaborate with this piece that didn’t work out how I wanted it.”

CPJ: I would like to know more about the physical process of making the ceramics, especially since you mentioned some of the mishaps that can happen in the studio. What is the process you usually take when creating a new piece?

Sage: Hmm, that’s a good question. For me, personally, I really like hand-building with ceramics. I can wheel throw, but it’s not my favorite. Me and the wheel are not best friends yet cause that’s just not how I tend to work. So, it definitely depends on the piece that I’m gonna make. For example, I did this cake sculpture…

CPJ: I love your cake sculpture so much!

Sage: Thanks! And for the cake sculpture I used coil building and slab building, and for the base—the walls of the cake going up to the top—I used coils. And it’s kind of a meticulous process where you roll out each individual coil, and you have to score and slip them so they stick together, and then you smooth it all out so they’ll stick together even more, if that’s the look you’re going for. Then for the top, I placed a slab that I rolled out to make it look a little more smooth, and then I actually had to make—oh, I made that all upside down so the bottom was hollow. It’s hollow inside, I made it upside down to make it more sturdy, cause that way the top wouldn’t sag in, and then I created these whipped-cream-frosting-dollops, and I just got really, really wet clay and smushed it out with my fingers. A lot of people will use these really fancy tools to create specific shapes or do specific things, but a lot of the time I just like using my hands. It’s easier for me, I feel like I can think better when I don’t have as many tools to choose from. Yeah, that’s definitely my favorite way of working—with my hands. And I feel like when I am brainstorming things usually I’ll think about what different pieces I’ll have to make and then put together, cause a lot of times you’ll have to make the separate pieces and wait for them to dry a little bit and get leather hard so then you can put them together or else, sometimes,  they’ll be smushed or really get out of shape because of how the clay is; it all depends on the clay. There’s so many things that go into it.

CPJ: What kind of pieces do you like to make the most? I’ve seen a few of your creations before—like the Hello Kitty radio, which I absolutely love. I’m still blown away that you made a radio, and the cake! Is there a certain vibe or aesthetic that you tend to stick with?

Sage: Yeah, I definitely really love the idea of magical realism. So, things that are a real life object and then wonkified, kinda. And I really like to make people smile with my work, because I feel like there are some artists who do that, but a lot of times that’s not the intention. So, lately with my work, because there’s been so much…funky-ness going on with COVID and all of that,  I’ve needed to smile more, and so making work that is cutesy and whimsy and fun can kinda help other people do that as well. Sometimes that does backfire though, because for critiques people won’t have critical things to say. Which is hard for me to learn and grow, so a lot of times I’ll have to think within myself, “what do I need to do,” instead of going to other people, to critique myself more.

CPJ: Is there a piece that you’re currently either most proud of or that you just love so, so much?

Sage: I definitely really love—okay I have two. There’s this one piece that I made when I was in high school, actually, that’s on my mom’s counter that I always forget about it, but when I go home—and I rarely, rarely go home—but I was home two weeks ago, and I saw it, and it’s really fun to look at. It’s this really shittily made vase that is two slabs, kind of, but then there’s a bunch of coils I curled up and like smushed together on the side to kind of make a weird mosaic type of situation, and I think I love that piece because of how far I’ve come from that. Like, the glaze isn’t neat, I don’t think I mixed the glaze right when I did that one. So many pieces had broken off. And I remember being really proud, like, “wow! I can’t believe I made this, this is so cool.” And now when I go back it’s really nice to see that that is something I made and I was super proud of, but now I know that I can do better and I know that I’ve learned from that spot. That’s definitely one of my favorites. And then another one is my Hello Kitty radio, cause I think that’s one of the pieces I’ve spent the most time with, and that’s something I’m trying to focus more in my artist practice right now is spending time and having it feel finished because that’s not really something I’ve tried for in the past. Cause I just try and run through it, but with that I took a lot of time, and that was all coil built with really small coils to try and make everything even, and if you flip it over—because it’s hollow as well—you can actually see all the coils, which is really interesting. And my professor said that that’s actually his favorite part, which is funny. But yeah, that one I feel really proud of because I did spend so much time, and it does get a lot of praise, but I feel like that’s not why I’m super proud of it; it’s because I feel like it was finished and completed.

CPJ: I really liked what you said about the first piece—about the vase. I just love that you felt proud of that, of something you now realize there was a lot of flaws with it, technical stuff, because I feel like for other creatives or other artists there’s always that gut reaction to absolutely hate anything that you made because you’re just like, “oh my god, it’s so bad!” But I wonder, do you think there’s a difference in being able to actually hold the work, like with ceramics, because with poetry or art where it’s like painting, it’s all on paper. So I wonder, do you think there’s a difference between being able to actually hold this 3D object that you have just created rather than being strictly to paper?

Sage: Interesting. I definitely feel like there is a difference, and honestly I think that’s why I lean towards the 3D mediums. It’s also interesting because I surround myself with a lot of people who do 2D mediums, which blows my mind every time, and I feel like people who actually do make 2D art are usually more critical of themself, and I don’t know if that’s because they can erase things or cover things more easily, but something I’ve learned, especially in ceramics, is that the dents and the imperfections are honestly really beautiful, and it’s like you’re working with the clay instead of forcing the clay—which is also really hard to learn how to do. Because sometimes the clay is just gonna do whatever it wants to, but that’s also really fun. And being able to hold my work and be able to have my work take up space is really important to me because then I get to live with it. Especially now, I have a lot of my work scattered about my house and it’s really fun because then I get to see—it’s living amongst my books or on my desk. It’s really interesting to see and live with work and I feel like it means more after.

CPJ: I feel like there is something to be said about the way that 3D art pieces inhabit a space moreso than just an art print—which, I love my art prints, like my walls at home? Plastered. But I also, I’m the bitch who has teacups out as decorations, so I feel like there really is something to be said about the way that 3D pieces—especially a piece that you physically created yourself—lives within the space with you. It kinda feels like a little friend, a little piece of yourself, that you get to take with you or leave somewhere.

Sage: Yeah, I think that’s definitely my favorite part; the space that this piece takes up. It’s also hard because when you’re a college student, you don’t have that much space, and so you have to find space for all of these things that you’re making, but you’re going to school for making things, and it’s a whole thing. And moving everything is scary, like I always buckle all my sculptures up in the car and wrap them in towels. The space that they take up is so important and like, what would be there if the sculpture wasn’t there to take up space? It’s kind of an interesting thought.

CPJ: And I think there’s also just something with how delicate it all is because, y’know, it’s in the conversations about ancient societies or societies that are no longer here—what have they left behind? A lot of the time it’s talking about the great sculptures, the great art pieces, that we don’t have because they’re broken, or just the urge to preserve any of these pieces we find in museums, and you’re creating those pieces in real time. I wonder if there’s this sense—I don’t know what the emotion would be—but just about how fragile these pieces are, and you can’t ever recreate it exact. It’s all very specified to what piece it is.

Sage: That actually makes me think of this project that I think most ceramic students will do, especially here at Evergreen, is creating something that has been made before, that is from a specific timeline. It’s a project that I’ve done twice now where you’re trying to recreate almost exactly what this ancient sculpture or pot was, and for me this is—it’s bullshit. Like, this isn’t my thing to create, and personally I don’t want—yeah, I’m a white woman. And these were not made by white women. Most of these were made by Indigenous women, ceramics actually came from women, which is kind of cool. It feels kind of wrong to me to be making things like that, that aren’t a part of my culture at all, so that’s something I think about, for sure. And it’s a hard thing to think about because I want to try my hardest not to step on toes or offend anybody, but even though it is just for an assignment we have to think about what we make and how it’s gonna affect other people.

CPJ: That’s really interesting because I don’t think I’ve heard that kind of conversation taken around ceramics before, especially in the recreation of it. I think it falls into the trap that a lot of colleges have, specifically surrounding Indigenous people, there’s this conversation of speaking about Indigenous folks as if they’re all gone when we have a longhouse on campus and Indigenous people are here, are still here—and that’s interesting, because I feel like in the art world those conversations aren’t as prevalent as, perhaps, in academics because some people are like, “well art is for everyone,” which is true…

Sage: It is true, but it’s not always true. And I feel like there’s specific types of art that isn’t for everyone, at all, and it’s not really our place to recreate things that aren’t and weren’t ours.

CPJ: Thank you for sharing that, I’ve literally never heard that discussed before.

Sage: Really?

CPJ: Yeah, and maybe it’s because I’m not in the ceramics part of campus at all, but also…

Sage: I don’t think it’s a super widely talked-about thing, but I know that it’s happening and it should probably be discussed more. I feel like a lot of discussion in that area of campus is more towards—this really big one I was actually talking to someone about yesterday is how women are viewed in art work. I don’t know if you’ve ever read the book Ways of Seeing, but a lot of it is about how women’s bodies are a form of art, especially a naked woman’s body, but it’s usually based upon white women. Like, we don’t need to have this conversation as much as we need to have so many others because this conversation has been had, and I think that’s also due to the fact of the ethnicities of our faculties and maybe some of our students who are in that area. I don’t personally know how to change that, I don’t know if there’s a good way for Evergreen to change that, especially due to who they hire or how they hire or how they advertise…

CPJ: I think it comes back to what you were saying about the collective, and the collectivity that there is in art, y’know. I think art needs to start going a little more hand-in-hand, at least in the academic setting—and on a college campus art should be a little more intertwined with the discussions of equity and equality.

Sage: Definitely. Especially with a college campus that is supposedly for all these people.

CPJ: Is there anything that you really want to talk about in regards to your art? Anything that you’ve been dying to say?

Sage: For me, and my work, I really want it to inspire other people and that is one of my main things with my life, with my work, is to help other people learn how to create things for themselves, for other people. Just really uplift and inspire, and give people the resources that they need-slash-want to create because I think there’s so many people that would love to do specific types of art work—even just drawing—and it’s crazy to think about how hard it can be to be an artist and how, I guess, formal a lot of art language and even art people are, which is frustrating. I just want people to be able to create work that is going to make them happy, because creating work, for me and some other people at least, it’s really important and I know when I don’t create something for a long time—even when it’s something little—it makes me sad. I need to be making things and doing things for me and my mental health. Art can be a really good way to help people through things, and teach, even. I think art can be really, really powerful if it’s used in the right way. I really want to implement these things even more into my life and I want to help people implement them into their lives.

CPJ: I think—just from what you’re saying, and past conversations I’ve had—it feels like there’s almost a dissonance between ‘art’ and then ‘artist.’

Sage: Definitely

CPJ: I feel like ‘artist’ can be a very charged, a very loaded title, that is kind of wrapped up in elitism or classism as well, but how I’ve seen art just between the various artists I’ve encountered and the art pieces I’ve seen in my own life, art almost feels like nature; it’s what you make it. Art is what it is—kind of like the storms we have; it’s just a storm, it’s not malicious. We put meaning to it to make it either a malicious thing or something that’s for good, makes the crops grow or clears the smoke from the air.

Sage: That was a great connection, like I did not know where you were going and then I was like, “yeah.” The word artist is so heavy, and honestly kind of gross now. I feel like when a lot of people think about art, they’re thinking about this guy who’s just standing there in front of a white canvas who’s just throwing, I don’t know, red paint on it, and then all these other guys are putting all this meaning and being like, “what does this mean? Is it a battlefield? Is it a love scene?” and no one’s really asking this artist, and this artist is probably gonna be like, “no, I just wanted to see what that would do, that’s not the finished piece.”

CPJ: Sometimes red paint is just red paint.

Sage: Yeah, exactly. A lot of the time red paint is just red paint. So many people can take your artwork and switch the meaning, and make it almost for themselves—which sometimes is beautiful and super encouraged, but other times people misread the room and I think that is frustrating, especially trying to be a student and learning these things and looking at these older paintings and older works and you’re like “that’s not what that seems like to me.” And sometimes we might not know what specific paintings mean, or what specific things mean, because the artist is no longer here to tell us or—a lot of artists will get really popular after they pass away, so how are we supposed to know what any of these mean? And why is it once these artists are no longer here that their art is being boosted? 

CPJ: I feel like artist can be a good term, especially for someone just starting out, like in our age group, who’s just getting into it and is like, “let me put this title on myself because I’m doing art, I am an artist.” But I also wonder if you think, in some ways, the title artist removes autonomy from the artist—if it strips away personhood, in a sense? Like, in certain spaces, certain places?

Sage: That’s interesting. I don’t know if I’ve ever thought about it like that. I guess, kind of how I think of the word artist is hoity-toity, self-centered almost, and I feel like this is because of the media and just society, but sometimes I don’t necessarily feel like an artist. I have to remind myself of my definition of an artist because so many of these so-called artists are just making capitalistic work and putting dots on a huge canvas and selling it for thousands and thousands of dollars. To me, that’s not what ‘artist’ is. And so, I feel like we have to have different definitions of artist—and also, a lot of people who are artists don’t actually like that word, like at all. There’s a lot of people who just call themselves craftsmen. A lot of people in ceramics, in jewelry making, in woodworking, actually won’t say that they’re artists, they’ll say that they’re craftsmen because they’re working. This is how they’re feeding themselves, by selling their work. A lot of the time when people say that they’re craftsmen it means they’re making functional things. And I think that’s because there’s so much pressure about the word artist, which can be kind of scary, but I think if there’s a way our generation could maybe flip it—or it might be a little late for our generation, but maybe the next few—can flip it around and be more artists in our own way, in a more inviting, a more comforting way.

CPJ: One thing I like to ask to close out any interview—which you kind of touched on earlier, but just to give you a little more space to expand if you want—what does art mean to you?

Sage: Art means to me creating things that come to me in ideas, creating things so that I will continue being happy. Art to me is—this is also really hard for me to put into words—but making art, for me, is a way of taking care of myself. It’s probably my biggest way of taking care of myself because I can spend time, and create things, and go through the many different processes, and be happy with it. Or be unhappy with it. It’s all about learning and experimenting and then seeing what the outcome is.