Meet The Maker: RHO Art

Tell us a bit about yourself!

I was born and raised in Minnesota by parents who nurtured and supported my passion for art from a young age. Since I was a kid, I always loved drawing, and then in college, I took ceramics and fell in love with clay as well. I graduated from college with a degree in Studio Art, and currently work full-time for a local sign company. While my day job helps to support my family, my art supports my need to be creative. When I'm not in art mode, I'm playing games with my wonderful kiddo or watching shows and movies (especially spooky stuff) with my amazing husband. I also enjoy tending to the plants in my yard and reading (fantasy and horror are my favorites). Though I don't get to do it as often as I might wish, I like to travel with my loved ones, especially to places with plenty of nature to see and explore.

Describe what type of products you create as RHO Art.

My artwork is often whimsical, sometimes kind of weird, and occasionally a little dark.

My ceramics are mostly hand-built, with some wheel-thrown elements. Small-scale sculptures are my favorite things to create. My sculptural work ranges from detailed Tiny Dwellings like haunted houses, cozy cottages, and even outhouses to more surreal themed pieces. I also make plant accessories called Nature Guardians, fun little knickknacks, pins, ornaments, and magnets.

Two-dimensional art is my original art form, and I still enjoy it today. Pen-on-paper drawings are something I always seem to go back to, and I also make collage-type mixed-media drawings. I like the slight dimensional quality of lots of little drawings layered together to create a single image. I also have giclees of original drawings and collages.

Tell us how you got started with your handcrafted business? What inspired you?

I've loved art since I was a kid. I was always creating something and took as many art classes in school as I could. Drawing and ceramics were the classes that I loved the most. Once I was done with college, I got jobs that didn't really satisfy my artistic side, so I made a point to still be creative in my free time. In my 30s, I was doing very little ceramic art, and as I was approaching 40, I began thinking that I wanted to get back into ceramics (I missed it). So with encouragement from friends and support from my family, I started playing with clay again, and I was loving it. I eventually made a small batch of ceramic trinkets, which I brought to work to show a friend. Other coworkers expressed interest in them and asked if they were for sale. It was then that I started to realize that I was making things people seemed genuinely excited about. That was definitely an inspiration for me to take a chance on turning my art into a side gig of sorts. So last year I made a bunch of stuff, both ceramic and two-dimensional, and decided to participate in a small market to see how it would go. That first market went well, which boosted my confidence a little. So here I am now, seeing if I can maintain a forward momentum.

Where does your inspo come from for new pieces?

Nature inspires me. I have a deep respect and love for the natural world. The texture of bark on a tree, moss in a forest, mushrooms sprouting from a dead log — it all sparks new ideas. Fairy tales, children's stories, fantasy, and horror are also very inspiring. Within these genres, anything is possible, which allows my imagination to be as whimsical or weird or dark as it wants to be. A house can be haunted, a cactus can grow on top of a whale, a cute little gnome can be murderous, and tiny dwellings can exist in bizarre landscapes.

A lot of your work is so miniature and so detailed! Can you tell us something surprising people might find about working with either miniature or detailed work like this?

I find that making many of the fine details isn't actually that hard. Don't get me wrong, it can be tedious, but it's not hard. Finding the right tools makes a huge difference in how efficiently specific details can be made. I have a handful of favorite tools that make creating all those little details pretty easy. Despite the amount of detail in each piece I create, I actually find the building process much easier than the glazing process.

I've never been the type of person to put myself out there and be the center of attention. Up until a few years ago, I had never even been on any social media platforms. So, having to be okay with putting myself out in the public eye in order to promote my art has been a challenge for me.

What has been the most rewarding part?

I love seeing people smile and get excited because of something that I created. It's a rewarding feeling to know that people like my art enough to want to have it in their lives.

Where can people find your work or connect with you?

I'm on Instagram @art_rho. Some of my art can be found at Unglued in Fargo, ND. I periodically have work in exhibitions at the Rourke Art Gallery + Museum in Moorhead, MN (I currently have a piece in their annual Midwestern). I'm hoping to keep participating in an occasional small market — follow me on Instagram for future details on such things.

RHO Art | Instagram: @art_rho