If you could build your home from the ground up, what would it look like? Would it have a spiral staircase leading up to a reading loft in the attic? Would it have a garden bed full of color in the front yard and a deep blue pool in the backyard? Olivia Duffy builds houses every day. Even the furniture inside of them, too. She is the head architect, the creative lead, and a one-woman show. She does it all using just her hands and a kiln.
Duffy will be one of the featured artists at Germantown Art & Sound’s July 26th showcase, towing her ceramic house and landscape sculptures with her.
Duffy's artistic scope is broad. She studied all art mediums in college and finally graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in painting from Ohio Wesleyan University. In addition to her classic drawing, painting, and sculpting skills, she also has an eye for architectural styles and techniques.
Originally, Duffy planned to focus on that field of study. But after she understood that the architecture industry relies heavily on computing, desk work, and logistics, she switched out her calculator for her paintbrush and leaned into her creative nature. She successfully blended her adoration of art, buildings, and nature from there into her now ceramics collection.
Duffy lives and breathes her art, literally!
Her landscape ceramics reflect the world around her, documented by the endless snaps of scenery in her camera roll. As a Germantown resident, she draws the most inspiration from the charming architecture. Often, her house plaque ceramics are replicas of neighbors' homes.
One of her most recent structures was built to mimic a community pool. With swirls of blue coloring the bottom, Duffy extends the structure to include a wall, in which she experiments with concepts of nature by painting beach backgrounds on the top. The expansion of her ceramics-building skills after five years of consistency is nourished alongside her painting flair.
The intricate detail in the hours it takes to build houses and landscapes is impressive, using a perfected technique to bring the art alive.
“For me, it feels like I’m painting with clay. The house looks like a 3D painting, and I think that’s a very painterly style. It’s more fun for me rather than making something that’s more plain and painting a design on it,” Duffy describes.
The purpose behind her ceramics is simple and sincere.
“I like making things that people like to look at.” Duffy continues: “I want my art to make people understand how we, as humans, should be more kind to the environment.”
Duffy’s “unique approach” to ceramics is what got her selected as one of this quarter’s showcase artists, says co-curator of Germantown Art & Sound Vanessa Chandler. She continued, “We love her fun, colorful, quirky, and relatable style. While we have hosted ceramic artists previously, Olivia’s houses and pool pieces will be a first-of-its-kind addition to our shows.”
“We also love that Olivia is a Germantown resident and has been an avid supporter of Germantown Art & Sound over the past year,” Chandler added.
Duffy reminisces fondly on previous art exhibitions and galleries, with a recent one being Jinxed Philadelphia’s Heart Show. Her heart-shaped bed, featured on her art Instagram @port.olivia, has become a new favorite. Outside of making landscapes and structures, Olivia excitedly experiments with beds and couches to turn her ceramic houses into homes.
However, Germantown Art & Sound pushes her further out of her comfort zone. The event opens her up to communicating with new faces, marketing the value of her artwork, and overall celebrating herself and her collection.
“I’m not very forward with my art. I don’t really like pushing it, but I need to be pushed to like really go out and apply for stuff, you know? It’s taken me a while to actually apply for it, so I was very happy when I got in,” Duffy said.
And sometimes all Duffy needed was a push off the diving board to land in the clear, (painted) blue waters of Germantown Art & Sound.
Germantown Art & Sound will occur at Our House Culture Center (6380 Germantown Avenue) on July 26. It will showcase Olivia Duffy and other artists. For more information, follow @gtownartsound on Instagram.
