Jonah Dichter: The Art of Transformation

You might think that I’m not always looking to meet artists everywhere I go. Maybe I’m not, but we find each other nonetheless. This year, I met Jonah Dichter at Krav Maga. Jonah is an emerging artist whose focus is on ceramics. As we were training for our next belt—I was going for blue, Jonah for purple—I asked him if I could see some of his work. He invited me to his house, where he had a few of his non-functional sculptures laid out on his kitchen counter. The more he told me about his work, the more intrigued I became.

Jonah's work is multi-sensorial. When I first saw it, the visual texture was the most obvious aspect. But then, when he started running his fingers over the surface of the textured sculptures, they produced a wonderful melodic sound. In addition to their visual appeal, these works are tactile and aural.

Jonah tells a story through clay, emphasizing the clay’s migration and sedimentation into a riverbed. In his work, he takes refined, commercially available clay and transforms it back to its natural, unrefined state. This process allows him to bring out the raw beauty and roughness of natural elements.

One of the most fascinating aspects of Jonah's work is his focus on transformation. He recycles his work within his work. For example, he uses parts of broken ceramics he’s created at other times and incorporates them into new works. A broken handle from a previous mug can become part of a new sculpture. Through his work, he shows us how these parts work together and relate to each other in different contexts. Discarded pieces become part of the new work, embodying further the theme of transformation.

Beyond creativity, ceramics is about an understanding of chemistry. The process of firing clay and glazing is a fascinating aspect of ceramic art. When clay is fired in a kiln, it undergoes a transformation that turns it from a soft, malleable material into a hard, durable object. This process involves several chemical reactions.

Initially, the water within the clay evaporates as the kiln temperature rises. As the temperature continues to increase, organic materials burn off, and the clay particles begin to fuse together. This process, called sintering, strengthens the clay, transforming it into a ceramic material.

Glazing adds a beautiful, often colorful finish to the ceramics. A glaze is a mixture of silica, fluxes, and colorants applied to the surface of the clay object before the final firing. When the piece is placed in the kiln, the glaze undergoes its own transformation. At high temperatures, the silica in the glaze melts, forming a glass-like surface that adheres to the ceramic layer. The fluxes help lower the melting point of the silica, allowing the glaze to fuse smoothly. The colorants, which are often metal oxides, react with the heat to produce various colors and effects typical of ceramic works.

Jonah's work beautifully exemplifies the intersection of creativity and chemistry in ceramics.

Meeting Jonah Dichter and experiencing his work has been awesome. His sculptures challenge the conventional understanding of ceramics and push the boundaries of what is possible with clay. His ability to transform ordinary materials into extraordinary works of art is truly inspiring.