Hope Gantt ’28 is kiln it in the ceramics studio

Whether it be pirouetting onstage, skating across the ice rink, or performing songs under arches, students find creative outlets in many different places on campus. For Hope Gantt ’28, her oasis of choice is the ceramics studio just across from Addy Hall. 

With floor-to-ceiling windows that allow natural sunlight to gently pour in, the ambiance of the studio envelopes stocked shelves, potter’s wheels, and apron-clad students in a soft, comforting glow. You can often find Gantt sitting at any one of the potter’s wheels, using her hands to gently mold curves, boundaries, and outlines until what was once an amorphous block of clay begins to resemble pots, bowls, and more. Twice a week, she also serves as an instructor, carefully guiding her peers through the process of crafting their own piece.

An art history major, Gantt began her ceramics journey in high school. On campus, she kept up her artistic practice through classes offered in the campus studio. Although she had always used ceramics to express herself, it was here that she began to develop a deeper appreciation for the craft, especially its unique medium, clay.

“Clay’s one of the coolest materials, because there’s no pressure. You can just put it back into a bowl and use it again.”

It’s this flexibility inherent to the material that Gantt feels has made it such a great escape away from Princeton’s academics and rigor, and especially from the need to explain the art you create. 

“You get so comfortable with being bad and throwing things away and recycling,” she said.

She also added that working with ceramics allows her to appreciate the function, not just the form, of her art. 

“In contemporary art, there’s a lot of theorizing and talking about influences […] I don’t want to always have to explain my work,” she explained. 

“I love that pottery is usable […] it’s such an everyday aspect of art compared to a high art like painting. Being with clay — there’s something more grounding about it.”

At any given day in the studio, you might also catch her practicing one of her favorite techniques: sgraffito. The technique, which means “to scratch” in Italian, is a special decorative method in which the top layer of a piece is carefully scratched off to reveal the clay underneath. After firing and glazing, the result is a gorgeous contrast between colored and blank spaces, with a rich textural surface and patterning unique to the individual strokes used to shave the surface.

For Gantt, the contrast magic happens in the moment before firing the clay, when it is “leather hard.” 

“You dye the clay, then carve away the top layer, revealing the contrasting layer underneath … I started doing that all the way back in my sophomore year of high school. It just stuck with me,” she said. 

Many of the patterns incorporated into these pieces reflect Gantt’s various personal travels and her interest in Byzantine and Islamic art from the early Middle Ages. She often finds inspiration in the architecture of buildings and other objects surrounding her, carrying a digital camera and a sketchbook to museums and travels abroad to track her ideas. Gradually, elements like vegetal motifs pulled from the very-early-Middle-Ages manuscripts she has studied as well as mosaic-inspired designs from her time discovering basilicas in Sicily have also trickled into her work. 

“Wherever I end up, I hope to have a home studio in my dream home,” she said, when asked about what the future looks like. “I definitely want to work in the art world, probably in a museum in a curatorial capacity. But for becoming a working artist, I would just need to have financial security in other ways.” 

Gantt’s stance on art and the practice of ceramics as a personal creative outlet without the academic pressures of explanation serves as a reminder to slow down and create. The hum and lull of the wheel, the feel of the clay, and the unbounded creative potential that lies on its blank surface beckon those seeking a new creative refuge.

Leia Pei is a contributing writer for The Prospect. She can be reached at lp2943[at]princeton.edu.

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