Delicately lacy and tactile, Isabelle Abramson’s porcelain is serenely elegant, and manages somehow to be simultaneously traditional and modern.

 

 

The basic bowl forms are simple, with texture and space being the key elements of their design. As well as form, serenity comes with the absence of colour. “I can’t even imagine using color, my studio is 200 square feet. I’d be overwhelmed if I were working with color. By keeping the color part simple, I can focus on design, texture, and form.”

Her decorative motifs are often adapted from things she’s found on antique furniture and textiles. William Morris is a big inspiration, for his sense of integrity as a craftsperson and the extreme importance he put on having beauty in simple, everyday life. She loves the idea of ‘home’ too – knowing that her work will end up in someone’s home directs much of her design process.

 

 

 

Isabelle is self-taught. Although she had a very brief stint at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts (in Boston), it didn’t work for her, and she transferred to Boston College and got a Bachelor’s degree in nursing. “When I graduated and passed my nursing exam I found a really good part-time job as a school-nurse and had plenty of time of time left over to work on my art. I’d done some pottery in high school and a little in college and there was a great little ceramics co-op down the street from the school where I worked. I kept a very regimented schedule of working at the co-op as if it was a full-time job. Within a year I was able to start selling my things and set up a small studio of my own.

“I taught myself everything I use and I think that’s why my artwork still feels personal and interesting to me. Nothing was handed to me in a book or a class, and I’m always learning. I think that self-teaching is the best way to learn how to create art. You miss so much information about the material if you just let someone else tell you how it works and what you can do with it. When you experiment a bunch of stuff wont work out, but then something will and you move forward in that direction.”

Being self-taught is a hard road, but Isabelle believes it is ultimately the most rewarding. “I had a lot of pieces fail (probably hundreds) while I was learning how to make the pieces that I sell now. I don’t think that there was ever a fail that I didn’t learn from even though it was always devastating when I couldn’t see how I would eventually solve whatever issue I was dealing with. Now I think of all those failures as paying my dues, and remind myself that if this had been easy everyone would be an artist.”

 

 

“It is extraordinarily hard to make a living selling art that you really love and believe in. Sometimes you have to keep working when it’s just hard and you feel sick of it. Going through those times and coming out stronger is what builds a really solid practice for creating art. It’s like endurance training. If you can go through all that and still fundamentally love what you’re doing, and make some money, you get to be an artist.

“I love the lifestyle. I probably work a lot more hours than the average 9-5’er but I usually get to choose what I’m doing with my time. I also get to have this crazy schedule where I go back between my studios in Boston and Vermont every two or three weeks. My artwork has gotten so much better since I’ve started spending time in Vermont. It was like adding a pressure release valve into my life.”

It’s not all about the making. “My business started when I could sell the things I made. I was surprised at how much of doing well has to do with being a smart businessperson and that it all doesn’t just magically fall into place when you work hard and make good art.”

 

By her own admission, Isabelle Abramson is an introvert. Her short time at art school was hard for her. “I had trouble focusing and was terrified of not being able to make a living as an artist after I graduated. Years later I learned that I really needed to be alone in a room to do any good work so art school was probably never quite the right place for me.”

Perhaps it has been the influence of her childhood that has led her to this solitary existence. “When I was a little kid I had an extraordinary amount of unsupervised time. I don’t think that I would be an artist or be good at figuring all of this out for myself if I didn’t have years of learning how to sew by myself in the basement or learning how to cook alone in a kitchen. I grew up with a feeling that if something can be made surely I can make it, and it would be much easier if I just went ahead and figured it out myself than wait for someone to show me.”

 

 

Isabelle works out of two studios, one in Boston, and one in Vermont. “My studio in Vermont is very organized and utilitarian. I think that it looks a little more like a science lab than an art studio. My studio in Boston looks a little more like an antique store or gift shop that I happen to work in. I think that when I’m in Vermont I’m more focused on the rest of the house being beautiful and don’t necessarily expect that people will come into the studio part of the house. In Boston customers are there all the time so a lot more of my energy goes into making my workspace reflect my work.”

“I really love my customers. My studio in Boston is open the first Friday of every month. {Details below.} No matter how hard of a month I’ve had I feel reinvigorated when I open the studio. It reminds me why I make art, and it’s so good to have that mirror every once in a while to see people’s reaction to the work.”

And her best piece of advice? “Keep working hard and it will all be okay. Also, don’t expect someone to lift you up (like a gallery owner, or a wealthy benefactor), you have to do that for yourself, and you will have more control over your life in the end if you do.”

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Isabelle’s work has been featured in numerous high profile places, including the Boston Globe, Yankee Magazine, InStyle Magazine and Apartment Therapy. You can find her work on her website, www.isabelleabramson.com.

You can catch her at her studio on the first Friday of every month, between 6pm-9pm. The address is –

450 Harrison Ave
Suite 411A
Boston, Ma 02118.