Ceramist and sculptor Nicole Semaan shares her artistic journey -- from lemonade stand to college and everything in between.
Tell us about yourself!
I am a freshman from Orlando, Florida, planning on majoring in neuroscience and behavioral biology with a minor in ethics. I truly enjoy any form of art I can get my hands on, from painting to crotchet to graphic design, but sculpting has a special place in my heart.
How did you get into sculpting? When did you first start?
I have been working with clay since 5th grade. I was introduced to polymer clay by a friend at school and instantly fell in love; I very quickly developed a collection of hundreds of miniature clay trinkets and knickknacks. In the beginning, I would watch YouTube tutorials and copy those step-by-step, but eventually, I developed my own style inspired by the many polymer clay artists I looked up to during my early years of sculpting. As for ceramics, I started in middle school when I took Ceramics I in 7th grade. My experience working with polymer clay translated well into making larger sculptural pieces, and I mainly focused on improving my ceramics throughout high school.
Tell us about your shop, Nicole’s Lil’ Things. How did you get started?
Before my shop came to life online, I was selling my creations at my street corner on a lemonade stand every weekend at age 11 or 12. It wasn’t until I became more involved with the polymer clay community on Instagram that I realized I could sell my miniatures online, so once I gained a bit of an online presence, I started Nicole's Lil' Things in April 2014 on Etsy. In 2016, I created my own website and transitioned my shop there, as I continued to grow a following and more people supported my artwork.
Since you are no longer involved with your shop, how are you continuing to pursue art?
By the end of my junior year of high school, I realized that I wouldn’t be able to keep up with my online shop, school, and life in general. Although it was bittersweet, I closed the chapter on Nicole’s Lil’ Things to focus on school and getting into college. Nevertheless, I continued to take ceramics classes throughout my last two years of high school. My ceramics teacher in senior year was gracious enough to allow me to use her classroom as an open studio after school, and there I worked on my own projects outside of class. It was then that I was able to experiment with larger pieces and functional sculptures, and I began to enter my work into art competitions and state fairs. Now that I am here at Emory, it is harder to get my hands on clay, but I have been taking every opportunity possible to pursue art as a hobby, whether it be through graphic design for clubs that I am a part of or drawing in my free time.
How has your style changed over the years, and what has inspired this change?
At the beginning of my clay journey, I was heavily influenced by creators in the polymer clay community online. Many of the creators I looked up to made pieces that featured pastel colors, cute faces, and dainty features. The pieces I made were meant to be used as charms, so they were incredibly small, about half an inch in size. As I slowly transitioned away from my shop and focused on sculpting larger ceramics, my style was more inspired by a sort of “whimsical realism.” It is a big challenge for me to make things hyperrealistic, so I enjoy taking realistic textures and images and adding a surreal spin to them. I’ve always admired the work of artists such as Van Gogh and Dali, and I find myself looking to elements of their pieces for inspiration. In a way, I think my background in making very tiny pieces has allowed me to be more attentive to small details in my larger pieces.
What message do you wish to convey through your sculptures?
My goal when it comes to sculpting is to just have fun and not take things too seriously. I find that I often get caught up in the little details of things, and I used to get stressed out when things wouldn’t turn out the way I wanted them to. Working with clay has given me an outlet by which I can fail again and again without consequences. If you make a mistake with clay, it’s so easy to transform it into a beautiful thing. I hope that when people see my pieces, they are reminded to take notice of and appreciate the little things in life.
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