The Healing Power of Clay
Sayge Carroll's work is an "apothecary of tools" for self-soothing and expression. By combining her music education with professional ceramic work, she has created a unique niche in sound art. Her studio, Mudluk Pottery, serves as more than just a workshop; it is a safe haven and fosters a "chosen family" among those often marginalized in traditional art spaces.
Sayge Carroll, a multidisciplinary artist, began her creative life with a camera her father had some difficulty understanding. She practiced on her own, gathering tools from estate sales her mother attended and fashioning makeshift darkrooms, a part of the photography process she loved.
After doing this for a couple of decades, Carroll rediscovered pottery, and clay felt like home.
“I was like, ‘I’ve never felt this good about photography like I do about clay,'” she said. “And I just kept on.”
Carroll ran a home-based daycare from 2007 to 2010, caring for around nine children. It was during that period that she discovered an affordable pottery class at Powderhorn Park. She hadn’t worked with ceramics since high school, and she was thrilled to return to it.
“I could go someplace and I could make stuff and play, and it didn’t talk back,” she said. “It felt like something I understood.”
Carroll entered the Powderhorn Art Fair’s community section, won, and began selling her work at Seward Community Co-op.
“From there it was the thing that I was able to use to make money,” the South Minneapolis native said.
She continued working with youth at PrairieCare, incorporating pottery into that work, and in 2010 started a collective of nine women.
“I was sold on clay in a way that I would always try to share with as many people as possible,” she said.
One young student taught Carroll how to make a whistle, opening a new chapter in her practice as a sound artist. She went on to work with Douglas Ewart, a musician and instrument builder, to make ocarinas, a wind instrument with finger holes. Learning to make sounds with clay connected two parts of her life that had long run parallel. Carroll had studied music at Howard University and never wanted to leave it behind.
“I really can’t forget the music part of my life,” she said.
She now makes flutes, drums and soundscapes, and has done performances in which she created both the soundscape and the music for accompanying films.
“The music for me is part of this apothecary of tools that I have,” Carroll said. “I work with all these different mediums and I get a specific type of satisfaction out of working with the different ones.”
Music, she said, recalibrates her, helping her feel something different and move through moments of life. As a small child, Carroll sang to herself constantly, sometimes getting in trouble for singing in class. She now recognizes that trait as self-soothing, and part of her neurodivergence.
“I just kind of incorporate that into the work that I do as much as I can.”
In 2022, Carroll and two collaborators, Keegan Xavi and Katrina Knutson, opened Mudluk Pottery Studio with a vision of expanding access and eliminating gatekeeping for people who have long been othered. The studio is designed as a safe space for those who are neurodivergent, queer, BIPOC or not able-bodied.
“It’s important to have a space to just be and not have to worry about microaggressions,” Carroll said.
Mudluk’s offerings include Clay in Conflict classes, which began in 2020 to help mediate conflict and facilitate difficult conversations; Melanated Meetups; First Fridays; memberships; and summer camp. Through these programs, the studio has cultivated what Carroll calls a “chosen family.”
Clay, she said, is a patient teacher.
“It teaches you to try again, and as you get to know clay, you can make anything happen. It’s really a wonderful metaphor for life.”
Mudluk, which also operates as a newly formed gallery nonprofit, is currently located at 2951 Bloomington Ave. and will soon move to a new space — still in South Minneapolis — at 2908 Harriet Ave. The new location is three times the size of the current studio, allowing for more clay workshops, dedicated comfortable spaces for members and potentially new mediums like photography.
To book a class, learn more or keep an eye out for upcoming events, visit mudlukpottery.com or follow @mudluk_pottery on Instagram.
Damenica Ellis welcomes reader responses at dellis@spokesman-recorder.com.