 Welcome to the show meeting interesting people. Today my guest from China, Dennis Nymerk. Hi, Dennis. Nihao. Nihao. Okay, so tell us, first of all, we would like to create a portrait of the artist. So, let's start going back when you decided that you want to be a ceramist. So, let's start from there. Well, I've been doing ceramics since I was eight years old. My father, Alexander Nymerk would often bring me to the campus with him. And of course, my favorite place to hang out was the ceramic studio. They are the professors and students all were very helpful and very friendly. So, for me, this is always a comfortable and safe space. When in 2007, I enrolled at Hofstra University for my undergraduate degrees. My initial major was biology and then I didn't actually stick with that. I switched to mathematics within a year. But then I nearly finished the math major and then I added on economics major, a Chinese studies major, and finally also a ceramic sculpture major. So I ended up actually doing my undergraduate from 2007 to 2015, quite a long time, and ended up with four bachelor's degrees. And by the time I was done with all that studying, I figured my initial plans of what to do with life weren't actually necessarily as accurate as what my current desires were. So, instead of going and working as an actuary or doing something related to mathematics economics. I chose to do art instead. And I can honestly say I don't regret the choice. Okay, so and then you decided to go to China. Yes. So a little bit of history about the city I live in. And the gen is the site of the first imperial kiln ever to fire high temperature. And this is a big deal. So porcelain requires a very high firing temperature requires a temperature around 1300 degrees Celsius. This is really hard to achieve with simple kilns. The technological breakthrough for creating kilns that can reach these temperatures was of course in China. And that's what guaranteed the dominance of the ceramic market by China for hundreds of years. Now, Jingle Zhen is a city that is entirely revolving around porcelain. Right now it's mostly consistent of factories and studios workshops. It's a very artistic place. But in the past, it was very much geared towards large scale production of everyday goods for common people. High quality production for nobility. And of course, the very, very best ceramics were produced by the imperial workshops and kilns. For example, UDL, which is one of the surviving kilns from five or six hundred years ago. I'm not quite certain about the founding. But yeah, it's a place filled with history. So this was the obvious place to go for my master's degree. I see. So and how the education was going. So it's two years. The master's degree. I enrolled in the master's degree program in 2016. And I graduated in 2020. Considering the classes and all our coursework, our thesis all had to be in Chinese. It was quite difficult actually to do. And I needed to improve my Chinese to be able to complete it. So a lot of that time was spent simply studying language. I see. So and what do you need to present by the time you like it's your diploma or graduation project? Right. So I studied in the ceramic sculpture department and the requirements here are to have a final exhibition, which I created about 10 works. I'm not sure at this point. I created about 10 sculptural works that are all connected by a theme. And my theme was biodiversity in marine ecosystems and learning to live harmoniously with aquatic life. I had a rather long thesis in both English and Chinese. And I had a defense where we had we have three stages of the defense. First, it was the initial presentation of the ideas and a simple draft, then a larger presentation of nearly finished thesis. And then there was a final one that is a confirmation. I guess that would be the real defense where they ask you a lot of questions and you really have to back up your ideas and your methods. So with the presentation you did that was in Chinese, right? Of course. I see. Well, I just can't applaud nothing else. So listen, and then you decided that you're going to be a PhD candidate. And now you're involved in that program and it's the same city, the same town? No, I actually decided later to delay my entrance that program. I'm going to be entering it soon. But right now Beijing is under strict quarantine. So it's best if I begin the program in about half a year rather than right now. So the university I'm going to do the PhD at is Qinghua, which is Qinghua is one of the 100 top academic schools in the world currently. And it's, well, it's one of the top art schools in China as well. It does be very top, but the ceramics program there is quite good. And I'm going to potentially study under Xu Zhenlong, who is quite a famous sculptor. I see. So and I know that that's your new project. Yeah, I'm creating these splotches of color and then carving into them. I mean, if I can adjust my light here to be less bright. Well, tell us more that I know you were participating even in a snow sculpture competition. Yeah, that was the Harbin Sun Island snow sculpture competition in. It was January 2016. Yeah. And I went with a team composed of one profession, my major advisor. And two other students and what town it was. Harbin Harbin in Heilongjiang province. And it was it's the northernmost region of China. It's quite Russia and gets quite cold. When we were working there at the temperature for most of the four day period were about minus 30. Yeah, it's about Celsius. Oh, yeah. So I actually don't really understand Fahrenheit. Okay, we let us our viewers to calculate by themselves. So, and then I know that you did the sense culture here in US years ago. Yeah, that was the Point Reyes National Seashore in California. And that was I think that was also 2016 or 2017. But yeah, that was that was quite fun. I entered the competition there as well. And I entered as a single person sculpture entry. But I ended up winning the grand prize for the entire competition. What's kind of unexpected actually. So any Harbin competition, my team got second place in the entire competition. So when you're working with sand, that some solution you need to use to put this, you know, all this sand together, or how you work with the ice with the snow. Sorry. In both cases, good old water. So, with temperatures that low, the snow, when we would compact it. The sculpture itself was a dragon holding up, holding open a history book. We we carved out. It was a three meter by three meter block of now compacted by machines. This is how I spread these colors. That's pretty. Right. So we carved out a couple blocks out of the side so that we can use it as a stepping stone. And then we put those same blocks back on the top. Yeah, and they were gathered by gravity. But then when we have the dragon's head, the head obviously has quite a big overhang. So a lot of the weight is in the front and the neck has to be secured. So we did there at temperatures of minus 30. You pour out water, it freezes within a minute. I see. We wet the water. We put it in bottles and then we sprayed it along the joints. So one per head to spring this water along the joints. And it basically cements it at the joints. It becomes ice. And then all the small details like horns, claws, and many small objects we added using water. I see. I see. Well, what kind of clay you use that's mostly like white? This would look like white clay? Right. So this is a 609 porcelain. And this is considered a high white porcelain. I see. It's particularly good for casting. So these shapes I have here. Let me show you. So this is what I'm working on today. That's my business. Yeah. So you say hi. Right. So these are produced in molds and then I will carve them afterwards. I can carve them in all sorts of different designs. So here's one I did earlier today. That's very nice. Yeah. So I know you were good in like a teapot. Oh yeah. It was a big collection, right? Teapots. And some of they have marine objects. Yes. Some creatures of the sea. Yeah. Let me show you some of the teapots I have created in the past. So we don't have much here right now because we actually just moved into the studio. Right. But yeah, they're covered with funky creatures. Yeah. So I'm going to show you some of these. Thank you. So. Yeah. So we also use. Yeah. I know you said to me a while ago that you are love the ocean, but right now you leave not near the ocean though. Yes. That is a bit of a dilemma. Actually, whenever I have time, I like to browse the internet and look for pictures of ocean life transpiration. But hopefully soon I'll be able to regularly visit the ocean again. I said that. I went to Hainan and there I saw so much coral and fish lobsters. I saw a feather star. I saw all sorts of interesting little creatures. And it was great. So that's your biology degree speaking inside. I never got the biology degree. But yeah, that's that's my love of biology for sure. Yeah. It expresses itself in. So did you have opportunity to travel around the China? Oh, yeah. So in addition to making ceramics, I also often do jobs as an actor and a model. Wow. That allows me kind of it allows me many opportunities. One, I can travel to different cities. For example, I came back from Guangzhou a few days ago. And also it lets me expand my ceramic business because everywhere I go, I very actively promote and I make connections with local artists, local galleries. So it's really these go hand in hand. The two jobs just help each other. So we will tell your dad here in the U.S. that he should not be worried about you. You're doing fine. Absolutely. Actually, when I was a student, I was struggling. It was money was quite difficult to come by. There is very, very, very little legal work to do here as a student. Right. But once I graduated, I started up a studio and now I'm doing quite good. My business partner and I actually recently got a business license and we have upgraded in this year. We've upgraded from a 15 square meter space to a 160 square meter space. Congratulations. Thank you. Oh, by the way, here's. Thank you so much for showing that to during the conversation. Yeah, we will use some videos from Instagram viewers that I mentioned to you to show the viewers more of your artwork, the beautiful one too. Thank you. Yeah. Well, you know, we wish you the best and thank you for your time. I know it's very late there in China and shi shi. Actually, it's always work late. So it's really no big deal for me. Yeah, I know. When we were subbed the time at the studio, I mentioned that he's a young man, so he will be fine. I know it's almost midnight there. So it's 12 hours different. Well, Dennis, wish you the best. Thank you so much.