James Alby and I first met in Fall of last year through our mutual friend, Dan. James showed us nothing but genuine kindness and friendliness from the get go. One Moto Cafe was going to showcase James’ and other skaters’ artworks in the spring. With a documentary about James premiering soon, we sat down to discuss the upcoming project, the relationship between skating and pottery, and figured out how to, once and for all, pronounce “vase.” The conversation took place on January 20, 2025.

First thing, congrats on the upcoming documentary. Can you tell me how that all came to be?

The director (Daniel Ray Cantu) reached out to me one day over email. I looked through his past work. He worked with Maple XO, who I really admire, so I was like, “yeah, I’ll work with you on something.”

It all kind of just happened really fast. We did a whole interview thing for the voiceover and then we filmed it. It's basically done now (laughs). He's just getting music for it, which is like one of the hardest parts of making something like that.

How long have you been working on the documentary?

On and off, it's only been three months or something like that. Maybe less.

Was there any specific reasoning why he reached out to you?

He was saying that he was a fan of my work, and I think he saw a lot of potential for doing it on me. This is the pilot for a series based on skaters who make art.

Is it just focusing on skaters from Portland or is this gonna be all over?

It’s gonna be all over.

You also have a show coming up. How did that get started?

Actually, that is pretty connected because that show is at a cafe that the assistant director of the documentary is the manager of that cafe. That just kind of worked out. And it's partly in promotion of the documentary and stuff.

Just as a sidetrack, I want to be correct when I do this. Is it throwing? Is it pottery? What's the correct word for it?

It's interchangeable, you know? It is pottery. Ceramic is the finished product. After it's fired, that's when it becomes ceramic. A lot of people say ceramic art. But you can also say pottery or potter, doesn't matter to me.

So pottery is the clip, and ceramic is the part?

(Laughs) yeah.

I see on your Instagram story that you visit other installations and art shows. When you look at other people's ceramics, what are you looking for?

I feel like I am looking for people pushing the limits of what pottery is. I'm really bored by mugs and bowls and stuff; there's some that really strike me, but I’m just looking for people that are going in a completely different direction. They're challenging the idea of like functional craft of an art. That's what I'm trying to do myself is like, push the limits of my physical ability and the actual art itself.

I just did this in a recent piece where I stretched it to its absolute limits where it's literally like breaking apart, and that's what's cool to me. When something is nearly falling apart but is still alive.

And I'm looking for a lot of storytelling within a piece, not literal storytelling, but the story of that person who made it so like, how do they imprint themselves within a piece? Because that's really easy to do with ceramic art in particular—leaving your energy and your lines within a piece. You can see it in some of my work the way it was thrown and how I’ll leave fingerprints within a piece. Anything like that, you know? Showing the storytelling, showing the dance of what the piece is.

Do you have any favorite pottery artists?

A lot of my favorite potters are dead (laughs). Hans Coper is my main inspiration for pottery. I mean, he's like most famously challenging functionality than design within ceramic art. Claire Debril is another one. Just really beautiful work that's a little more angular or has a raw edge. It's almost traditional and then she does something that just makes it her own. Taking traditional work, challenging it, and making it your own is really cool to me.

Based on the way you talk about it, it seems like you focus a lot on the overall shape and form of the piece. Do you ever consider the glaze or the color of the piece as well?

That usually comes later. I feel like I work in a very impulsive kind of way. When I make a piece, I'm not thinking about the finished product usually. I’m just thinking of how it is in the moment. After I finish the initial throw, I'll just let it sit for a long time until I get the feeling of wanting to do something to it. And that could be destroying it or adding some kind of decoration to it, which is just like slapping more clay material onto it and cutting it up. And then the glaze, it's kind of the same thing, when I'm ready to glaze something, I'm just like, “well this is how I feel in the moment of making this piece, and that's just how it happens.”

What makes a good studio?

A good studio is very clean. It's really important for a pottery studio to be clean in my opinion (laughs). A big part of my day is just cleaning up every day.

Space, like a lot of space. I am making a lot of big stuff, so I need a lot of space.

Good energy and vibes. I work in community spaces, which I really like because I like to engage with my community. So having people that I can talk to and get ideas from and give ideas to, and work in that way is probably the most important thing really. Community is everything, so I'm always looking for spaces like that. I want to eventually have my own studio space, but I would definitely do it with a friend or something because I would just need that. You know, somebody there (laughs).

I want to talk a bit about your relationship with skating and pottery. The first question I want to ask is, what is the pottery equivalent of landing a kickflip?

The pottery equivalent is landing a kickflip… You know, kickflips are interesting because you could learn the kickflip and it could look terrible and you wouldn't love it. But then you would try it again and again until you get a nice one. I feel like that's what throwing is sometimes.

I would say a kickflip is like throwing a small cup or something. You could just make a cup; it's not that hard. It's just a cylinder. But to make a nice cup, it takes a little extra skill and a little extra finesse. That's the pottery equivalent to a kickflip.

Does skating influence your pottery at all or does pottery influence your skating?

Skateboarding's influence on my pottery has been the disciplinary aspect of it. Failing at something so many times and just being like… you know, that drive to keep going, keep doing it. Making pottery, I'm failing constantly. I don't show any of that really, but I'm messing up every day; something breaks every day. And it's okay.

Some people would be discouraged by that, but I think skaters would get a lot out of pottery just because of that drive to keep going. I would say that's the main thing.

Like I was talking about earlier, sometimes you land something and you look at the clip and you're like, “okay, that was that was bad. I gotta go back and do it again.”

There's a lot of that in pottery. You get to the end and technically it's complete, it's ceramic. But it's not what you want, you know? It's not what you intended and it doesn't look great. Sometimes it's not your intention and that's actually sicker, but usually it's like, “okay, this is too heavy on the base or something. I need to keep going, keep trying.”

Do you ever look at the curvature of a curb or a ledge? Or the angles and trying to incorporate that or inspire something about your piece?

There's a lot of texture in skateboarding that attracts me more than angles and shapes. It's mostly skate spots—I guess they're not really skate spots. They're my kind of skate spots like a tree or something that is skatable. So like lines that a chain will leave on a pole, I really like stuff like that where it wears away a pole. The way that nature reclaims a lot of what humans have made like sidewalks and shit like that, the asphalt breaking up. That's the stuff I'm really looking for and like taking pictures of. That's what I find interesting.

While you're skating, do you ever think about pottery as you are trying a trick?

I feel like I'm always thinking about pottery, because I just have a running list of things that I need to get done by the end of the day. So, yeah, it's kind of always on my mind.

Same thing with skateboarding, sometimes I'm just thinking about trying a trick or something, or like I need to go meet up with Noah (Smith) to get a photo.

Taking time out for pottery, taking time for skating, how do you balance that?

It's hard because I'll try to do both in the same day. I try to never take a day off of pottery. I try to do it every day. I've been skating every day for like 15 years, never taken a day off skating except for when I get hurt. Now, skateboarding has taken a backseat a little bit so I'm not skating every day, but I'm skating most of the week.

What's your final end goal with pottery?

I guess there really isn't an end goal. I have a lot of goals to keep pushing the boundaries of what I can do and what’s possible with ceramic. I always say pottery is not the end of it; it's not gonna be the last kind of art that I'm doing. I already do other kinds of art, but I want to move into more larger sculpture like bronze and making structures in Portland that are permanent fixtures that are skatable. That's a big, big goal for me. I feel like there's no limit to what you're able to do. I mean, look around us, there's so many things that was just made by somebody, you know? That's what I want to do. I just want to do big, crazy shit.

Skating in general always has trends. Right now, we're in the baggy pants trend. Are there similar trends like that in pottery where there's a certain design or element that a lot of people use?

Yeah, I think there's trends in pottery for sure. I'm not trying to knock on anybody's work or anything, but there's people who do glaze work by blowing bubbles. There's little gimmicky stuff, you know? Anything that's a gimmick, I’m just like not into. I try not to look at pottery, especially on Instagram or any kind of social media, because everybody's looking at that same image. And I don't want anything to do with stuff like that. I just want to do my own thing. I want zero influence from that.

I look at old shit, like things that people in the past have done that are really interesting. I'm not trying to emulate a lot of that stuff; I'm just like trying to understand where they were coming from with their work and why they did it. I think that's how I go about making things. What is the actual reason that I'm doing this stuff?

I've seen before that there was a pro board with your work as a graphic before. What do your sponsors think about your work with pottery?

I think they're all stoked on it, which is great because I feel supported by all my sponsors. I feel like if you're just doing skateboarding, that's kind of fucking boring, you know? Being really good at skating is just like whatever. What else do you do? Is it just skateboarding? I don't know. Having some kind of personality is nice. I gravitate towards skaters who make art. I find them so much cooler than people who just skate. Even people who just film, you know, I think those are like the coolest skaters. They're kind of behind the scenes, but they sometimes skate better than the skaters (laughs). Those are the best people.

And then from my last question, is it vase [vays] or vase [vaaz]?

I say vase [vays], hard “a.”

Thank you to James for taking the time to talk and shoot photos. You can check out some of his work and exhibits at jamesalby.com or follow @alby_there4u on Instagram.

“Chimera” will be premiering at the Hollywood Theatre on April 19, 2025 as part of the Portland Panorama Film Festival. Tickets available here.

A Conversation with James Alby

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