In Conversation with Sculptor Liz Janss

How do you typically start your day? Do you have any rituals that help you settle into your creative practice?

I often ride my horse in the morning. After my ride I am just utterly thankful for everything.  It is a good head space to have at the beginning of the day.

Much of your professional life has been devoted to law and science. What has it been like to give yourself the space to fully pursue your artistic practice?

Being able to give my full attention to creating art is, in a way, still following the same trajectory I have been on, just a new side of it.  Science was a way of looking at the brain, and much of the lab work I participated in dealt with early development and the growth of neurons. But my law practice was also about the brain. A lot of my clients had head injuries and I watched their recovery journeys. My cases were often two or more years long, and that allowed me to watch people heal and I could witness the changes in their thinking patterns.  Healing and development are similar processes and knowing about one often informs the other. 

Sculpting giant neurons is still me thinking about the brain and development and healing.  Sculpting a neuron that is nanometers in diameter into a 2-meter format forces the viewer to think of biology differently (it is making the neuron one billion times bigger).  Even that simple reframing of size might lead the viewer to have new thoughts about the brain.  

I make my own glazes and often the reagents I use involve elements that our bodies use too, like potassium and lithium.

What draws you to the colors you use? Is there a connection to the body?

My choices are often not totally cerebral choices.  They are often emotional choices.  I make my own glazes and often the reagents I use involve elements that our bodies use too, like potassium and lithium.  Wood ash is also a component and I love its texture.  The glaze portion of my process is me trying to imagine the actual emotions being processed by the body.  My pieces have chaotic and unpredictable outcomes, which seems to accurately reflect how variable emotions are. 

Looking ahead, what ideas, materials, or directions are you most interested in exploring next?

I am still all about neurons and biology, but I am taking those thoughts into photography, in addition to ceramics.  I shoot landscapes, but what I am trying to capture is the light, and the communication between the plants and land.  It is similar to trying to capture the communication between neurons and organs.  There are structures, but there is also something happening in real time.  Something that is hard to capture, but you can feel it.