American sculptor Woody De Othello explores clay, ancestry, and the psychology of everyday objects

Born in Miami to Haitian parents, American multidisciplinary artist Woody De Othello works across ceramic, bronze, and wood to animate the inanimate, transforming everyday objects into vessels of emotion and memory. Living and working in the San Francisco Bay Area, California, De Othello gives life to colorful anthropomorphic sculptures – telephones, mirrors, clocks – which appear to breathe with human presence. By enlarging and distorting household items, he explores the psychology of space and the energy objects hold, twisting domestic reference points and ancestral ties into lively, glazed forms. Presenting contemporary creatives shaping today’s cultural landscape, this episode of Meet the artists invites Art Basel to the artist’s Oakland studio, taking a hike in the redwood forests of Northern California. Here, he speaks about finding balance between the additive process of ceramics and the subtractive practice of carving wood – a duality that mirrors his own reflective nature. For De Othello, making art is an act of receptivity as much as creation: “I don’t want to make something because someone expects it,” he says. “I want to make something because I want to see what happens if it is made.”... read more at nowness.com ______________________________________ Subscribe to NOWNESS here: http://bit.ly/youtube-nowness Like NOWNESS on Facebook: http://bit.ly/facebook-nowness Follow NOWNESS on Twitter: http://bit.ly/twitter-nowness Daily exclusives for the culturally curious: http://bit.ly/nowness-com Behind the scenes on Instagram: http://bit.ly/instagram-nowness Staff Picks on Vimeo: http://bit.ly/vimeo-nowness