Today we’d like to introduce you to Adele Hauser.
Hi Adele, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I grew up in Austin and I’ve always imagined myself as an art person. I remember a worksheet in 2nd grade where I had to draw a picture of myself as an adult- in it I was wearing a beret and held a paintbrush and palette. I went to the fine arts high school and then to Pratt Institute in New York for a little over a year. It was a bad fit, so I finished my BFA in 2006 at the University of Texas in Austin. I moved to Portland, Oregon for about 5 years, where I started an arts collective with a couple friends called “The Delicious”. We ran a monthly event called A People’s Choir. We spoke at the PSU Open Engagement Art and Social Practice Conference in 2012 and took the choir to the Art in Odd Places festival in New York in 2013. When I moved back to Texas in 2015 my focus shifted back from performative to visual arts. I had a solo visual arts show in at the Union for Contemporary Art in Omaha called Secret Places. I was mostly making art on the side, however, as working as a music venue bartender, carpenter’s assistant and fabrication/finishing specialist for interior designers took most of my time. I was able to participate in couple of group shows at Cloud Tree Galleries in 2017 and 2018. I had another solo show in 2024 at Cloud Tree entitled Folk Relics, which was a mix of textiles, ceramics, painting and woodworking. My main focus now is ceramics, but I love textiles (I grew up in a family of quilters) and will always paint and make my own frames. I spend a ton of time with my family, who mostly live in Austin, with a few just outside of Los Angeles. The rest of the time I am a full time bartender, ceramics teacher, dog-mom and frequently have a foster cat (or kittens) running the household.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
It has been both rocky and smooth. I have a lovely family, which has been really amazing. I had everything I needed growing up. With a scholarship and support from my family I was able to go to the fancy art school I dreamed of- but that ended up a disappointment that crushed the dreams of what I thought my life was going to look like. I came back from NYC with a broken heart, and while I did complete my BFA, I didn’t end up pursuing the artist-life I’d anticipated. I had anxiety and depression starting from my teen years and started using substances to self-medicate. My habits became much more extreme through college. I performed well, but harbored very damaging addictions that I subsequently had to overcome as well. I’ve struggled a lot with my mental and physical health. However, through the ups and downs I have been able to learn an incredible number of skills, build lovely communities of like-minded folks, stay close with my family, and succeeded as a creator and self-employed maker.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I consider myself a mixed media artist, but my current focus is on ceramics. My family is filled with builders and makers, so I’ve always had craft as the foundation of my practice. I was taught to sew and quilt very young, and was always surrounded by handmade things. My dad is an architect who’s focus was on historic buildings, so I also grew up wandering through old buildings and going on archaeological digs on family vacations. We were raised on folktales, so storytelling has been a huge influence on how I use imagery. The ceramics I do now are usually wheel-thrown then modified to capture different characters and motifs from folklore and creatures from my imagination. I’m the most proud of my work that brings a sense of familiarity- like the feeling from a story you remember hearing as a child. The images I make are based on many different sources blended together, so it’s fun to see folks trying to figure it out, and then taking the story wherever it best suits them. I think my work stands out because it is a personal take on something many people find recognizable. While folktales are something many of us grew up with, they can be like a game of telephone. Bits and pieces change as they move through time and different tellings. My work is the moment the game stops with me. It’s my interpretation of the story, at that moment in time, captured in clay.
How can people work with you, collaborate with you or support you?
I currently work through Feats of Clay in Austin, TX. This is where I practice and I also teach classes there! Taking a class with me at the studio is one of the easiest ways to work directly with me if you are interested in learning clay. I work full time as a bartender, so I don’t have time to make large bodies of work for sale. However, I do commissions and will sell through my instagram when I have items available. I will be participating in the Austin Studio Tour this year, which is a great way to check out the work in person this year.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: FolkRelics
