For over 15 years now, Arizona-born ceramicist Ben Medansky has been sculpting figures out of clay. He’s driven by the immediacy of the medium and the purity of the process of wheel-throwing. On his site, we read on his philosophy: “Clay becomes cup, clay becomes sculpture, and both become the history of the future.”

His current work is a culmination of his time in Arizona, Chicago, and his now homebase of Los Angeles as muse, where he is inspired by its architecture and reconstruction with a body of work that he says “invokes two different extreme didactics.” With his four person team of art school graduates, all Ben Medansky Ceramics are created by hand in limited runs—what he calls a “meditation on minimalism.” “I think it’s really important that everybody’s growing together, I’m not wanting to make a saturated industry…” he says, “I can start a company and an industry—I want it to be growing as a community.”

Check out what Ben Medansky has to say on the longevity of ceramics, his love for the immediacy of his art form, and his inspirations below:

See more of Ben’s work at benmedansky.com where you can purchase your own sculptural work by him and his team.