About the Artist
BIO
Raised outside of a small town in rural Alaska, Milo Berezin moved to Pittsburgh in 2004 to study sculpture and printmaking at Carnegie Mellon University, followed by a Masters of Teaching at Chatham University. The son of a production potter, he rediscovered the joy of clay while working as an arts administrator and teaching artist at a community ceramics nonprofit. Today, he blends his love of both 2D and 3D design on playfully illustrated ceramic forms inspired by nature. Still adapting to the hustle and bustle of "the big city" after almost 20 years, Milo enjoys using wildlife to explore what it means to be human.
ARTIST STATEMENT
I've always been equally interested in both image and object, and I’ve found joy in ceramics by blending the two — approaching the ceramic form as a canvas that can be drawn upon, brushed, incised, printed, layered, and stamped. I love that images on pottery are only fully experienced when they are explored closely and deeply. Each pot reveals its surfaces in new ways as the piece is held and used — inside and out, top and bottom, front and back — more intimately than a painting on the wall.
I grew up in the forests of rural Alaska and have spent my adulthood adjusting to city life. My functional work incorporates woodland imagery and conversational critters to create playfully illustrated narratives examining what it means to be human or beast. Many of my pieces are emotional self-portraits, a diary expressed through the thoughts of animals.