Behind The Seams | Michael Hudson of Hune by Michael Hudson

HP: Tell us about yourself and how you got started in business.
Michael: I am a multi-disciplinary artist with an interest in exploring how things work and how those working things alter our social and conscious experience. I studied at the Savannah College of Art & Design in Georgia, where I learned that there could be a very practical correlation between art and how we see, feel, and think about ourselves in the world around us. Ceramics has become one of the many mediums I use to explore some of these realisations.

I started working in clay at the studio of the Jamaican Ceramic Artist, David Pinto, where I have experienced the union of form, function and art, through skill and liberated creativity.

HP: “HUNE” is an interesting name, is there a story behind it?
Michael: Years ago a friend of mine recited a poem she had written. One of her stanzas included the phrase “We are hew-man, hewn men and women” (I’m paraphrasing); nevertheless it stuck with me. Hew is an antiquated word that engenders within me images of wood and stone artisans working tirelessly with conviction and passion to express their ideas. That for me is the potential that allows the creation of objects for humans to experience and enjoy all possible.

HP: When did you get into ceramics and explain your creative process?
Michael: I started learning ceramics during the Covid-19 pandemic, April 2021 to be exact.
My process involves organizing my thoughts through a series of sketches to narrow down the details of the forms I create. This creates freedom as well as restriction, because as much as you believe that you’ve got something drawn and ready to be “built”, it’s when you start working the clay that the real inspiration happens.

HP: How would you define your style of work?

Michael: The style of my art is greatly inspired by the simple checkmark or “ticky” as some of us Jamaicans call it. What finds its way into my work is the swooping curve that elongates to a sharp point. It’s bold, it’s sensual, it’s dangerous. I create work that embodies these aesthetics very often.

HP: Share 1 important life lesson you’ve learned since being in business?
Michael: Learning to face the reality that what I make does not have to be perfect, engineered or “manufactured”- that I believe would have to be on the top of the list.

Coming from a background in digital art and graphic design, the ability to copy and paste, save or delete, undo and redo, made it possible to set “perfection” as an objective goal. Symmetry, inches, pixels, resolution; those were some of my parameters for immaculateness, but don’t get me wrong, digital work is great and has its purpose. However, I believe the sensitivity of work done by hand is superior, uncontested and remains champion of the arts.

HP:Which materials fascinate you the most when moulding your creations?
Michael: The clay captures most of my attention. It’s the material I spend the most time with. After documenting an idea, it is all clay from there. Measuring, kneading, throwing, carving, trimming, sanding… It is in these stages that I understand the power of craftsmanship and its ability to stir up emotions not only for the viewer but also for me the artisan.

HP: What are words of advice you have for aspiring Ceramic Artists?
Michael: My advice is more for the general public, ceramics for me has only become something I can thrive at because I took a risk and did the unsavoury thing of stepping outside of my comfort zone to pursue something I thought I might like. I would have never known if I didn’t try it.

Just try it. Do something new.


HP:Where can we find you? ( Website, Social Media, Contact # etc)
Michael: