The sculpting sprinter

You may know him from football. You may know him from track. You may know him as Cap & Gown Club’s treasurer. You may just know him from his flowing blond locks. But regardless of how you know him, or even if you don’t, Ivan Charbonneau is one of the busiest people on campus. Because in addition to doing all of this, Charbonneau is a manager at the Wilson Ceramics Studio, an amateur ceramicist, a poet and, if that wasn’t enough, a pizza-making master. Street caught up with Charbonneau at the ceramics studio to discuss his love for clay and art.

Q: How did you get into ceramics?

A: My brothers and sisters had always been into ceramics and when I was younger they did it ... I didn’t actually start throwing[, or making pottery on a wheel,] till I came here. I took a class, whatever the ceramics class is, VIS 232, up at 185 Nassau [Street] and loved it. It’s a six-hour class, two three-hour classes on back-to-back days, but I’d spend probably 12 hours a week up there at the studio. On Saturday nights I’d go there instead of going out.

See, I wouldn’t consider it a nerdy thing, because I’m not so much an artsy fellow — maybe a little bit. I can’t paint or draw for anything but I’m kind of a handyman, an outdoorsy guy. So I consider this more a man’s type of art because it’s something you can do with your hands.

Q: What kind of things do you make?

A: I took much more hand pottery in high school and also focused on hand pottery in a class I took here. Most of the things I did involved hand-construction techniques. Since coming [to the studio] I’ve tried to develop my throwing skill because it’s not an easy thing. Even though I throw quite a bit it’s still tough to do and it takes years of doing it to get good at it. Maybe some people just jump on and have a feel for it, but for most people it takes a lot of time and dedication to do.

Q: What are you hoping to do? Is this a lifelong hobby?

A: I tell people that when I’m older I want to live on some kind of ranch with land and have my room for outdoorsy stuff and have a woodshop to do carpentry work and things like that. For sure, even if I don’t have that dream homestead, I want to have some kind of ceramics studio or room in my house. The nice thing about it is that it takes a bit of money to buy the wheel and the kiln, but once you have that, the clay is not terribly expensive. You can buy the chemicals to make the glazes. We make all the glazes here and you’ve just got to mix them up, so I guess it’d be somewhat of an expensive hobby but it’d be something I’d like to keep doing. It’s really relaxing.

Q: What has ceramics come to mean to you personally?

A: It’s a really nice release. But then again it’s not. I get really into most of what I do, because I’m really competitive and so I want to be really good at the things that I do which is a problem. That’s one of the things about ceramics; there’s not really any competition ... unless it’s for a class, but then you have your artistic freedom. I liked it because you can sit down and just work on a piece until it’s finished. I would work on pieces for a long time because I’m very meticulous and detail-oriented when it comes to it. On most things I’m kind of a slob. There are certain things I’m pretty much a perfectionist with, and ceramics is one of them.

Q: Between all the things you do — a very many things — how do you have time to balance everything?

A: It’s tough. Sometimes, when I find there aren’t people in here, I do a little outside work ... I can come in and throw when I like, but sometimes I’ll do Cap duties. I’m the treasurer and I get so many emails about things, and it’s just a lot of stuff I’ve got to stay up on. People understand when sometimes I’m strapped and have a paper due the next day, and people understand I won’t be able to help them as much. But if it’s somebody’s first time walking in, even if I have a paper due, I’ll help them with it. I’m good with having all the things to do that I do, and you get good at just making time where you don’t normally have time ... it kind of cuts into your sleeping hours.

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Q: Is there anything that has helped you do all the things you do?

A: Actually on the wheel it helps to be stronger. When you’re a beginner it’s hard to center a piece so if you’re a stronger guy it helps, so I have some girls come in here, or maybe just a weaker guy to sound politically correct.

I guess with any sport the great thing is you learn to accept failure, because you’re going to fail. If you’re going to throw on the wheel, if it’s your first time, chances are you’re going to fail pretty badly. Even when I throw, if I’m trying to make something a little more difficult than I’m used to making, there’s a good chance I’m going to catch a wobble and its going to come out looking ugly or tear the piece apart.

Besides that, I have a competitive nature in that I like to make nice things, but I guess everyone does to an extent so I wouldn’t say that’s related to my track or football experience. That’s just a part of me.

Q: Do you have an ideal piece?

A: As far as my hand-building goes, I’ve made quite a few things so I wouldn’t say there’s anything I’m looking to make ... But I’ve got two projects I’ve been working on. I’d really like to make a coffee cup set for my family back in Italy. We drank a lot of wine but I also got introduced to coffee; I never drank much coffee until I went over there, so I want to make a nice coffee cup set for them.

But in the future I want to get better at feeling larger pieces. I’d like to make a large ceramic bowl for pizza dough. I’m known for making pizza ... [My family will] all get together at some point over the holidays or the summer and I’ll make pizza for everyone ... So I want to make a big bowl for my pizza dough but I think that’ll be kind of tough because making a big bowl like that is just not easy.

Q: That’s very interesting. So in addition to ceramic art, what other kinds of artwork are you interested in?

A: I do fancy myself as a bit of a cook ... As far as cooking in general, my oldest brother Stefan was always a really good cook, and he used to do a lot of cooking at our family events when everyone got together. I also write poetry. I don’t know if you’re concerned with that.

Q:I’m concerned with everything you do that is artistic.

A: Yeah I write poetry. I’ve written some short stories and songs and whatnot. My buddy back home used to have a band, so I’d write songs for them. I haven’t done that in a while — I haven’t written a short story in a while either — but I’ve kept up on poems pretty well because I have a girlfriend, so she gets poems now and then. I try to work on that. I like that.

Q: So poetry, culinary arts, ceramics, two sports, officer ... Wow. I’m impressed.

A: And a girlfriend, don’t forget that. I wish I could write that on a resume, like “and I got a girlfriend,” because most people understand it but you can’t put that on a resume.

Interview conducted, condensed and edited by Trap Yates.