The media platform NOWNESS showcases American sculptor Woody De Othello, whose creative process began unexpectedly after an undergraduate roommate suggested he try making sculpture based on his drawings. De Othello's long-standing practice of drawing, which has been with him since childhood, represents his "first kind of like mind to like physical kind of connection". He often gets asked about when he draws, paints, or works with clay, but he finds the connection to the physical material most essential.
When De Othello started touching clay, he had an "epiphany," realizing that "Everything that I needed to know about my present, past, and future, was in the material". This profound moment fueled his interest in the "psychology of the space, the psychology of the objects around us". His contemplation centers on why certain objects merit "enough psychic energy to kind of come from the ether and be made something physical and tangible for us to use". His work now features "figuration, abstracted figure" alongside reincarnations of common household items such as telephones, mirrors, and recurring clocks. He mutates these objects, imbuing them with a sense of "emotion". For instance, the ear is a symbol for him to do more than just "listen, but to also really receive what’s being said or what’s being communicated".
A profound theme in his work, as explored by NOWNESS, is the concept of the vessel. He references the spiritual idea of "being an open vessel," a "container for something larger," and being "molded by something larger". This concept informs his approach to making work, which is simply about "waking up and seeing what happens". He avoids making anything because he thinks "that it's something that somebody else wants me to make". Instead, he makes something because he "truly feel[s] like I want to see what happens if it is made".
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American sculptor Woody De Othello
The physical act of working with clay directly led De Othello, who is a "naturally, like, curious person", to explore his own ancestry and cultural heritage. His family originates from Haiti. This research involved looking at "pre-colonial thought, African thought," and trying to "extrapolate, my relationship with, like, my ancestry". He began investigating "what did these people believe in before they were colonized". This study led him to the tradition of the face vessel. He learned that before the slave ship The Wanderer transported enslaved people into Edgefield, the flagship vessel "hadn’t made itself known on the American continent". To him, this suggests a tradition that "seems like it comes from home".
De Othello, who identifies as a Gemini and enjoys living in "contradiction and opposites," integrates different techniques into his practice. Since ceramics is an "additive process," he introduced woodworking and carving—a subtractive process—to create a necessary "dichotomy," resulting in a "really beautiful synergy between wood and ceramics".
His well-being and inspiration are deeply tied to the Bay Area, where he lives. He finds the rhythm there "just like, makes sense for me, makes sense for my practice". Being in a city in "proximity to nature is just like, a godsend. He emphasizes the importance of hiking and spending time on the trails, breathing "super fresh air". He noted this routine was something his body did not realize it needed until he started making it a part of his process and routine. Ultimately, his art is rooted in gratitude "to have breath, to have consciousness, to have this physical experience, to be maneuvering through time and space".
