Tagged Nanaimo

The Potters Cast | Mentorship | Ciro Di Ruocco | Episode 490

It was a very special honor to be a guest on The Potters Cast with my mentor Paul Blais.. talking about mentorship.

Ciro Di Ruocco is an emerging visual artist/curator, splitting his time between studios in Nanaimo, BC, Canada and his hometown of Duxbury, Vermont. Ciro’s work in ceramics is complimented by an affinity for printmaking and surface/ texture design. Ciro combines a utilitarian sensibility with a contemporary street art aesthetic, fusing his own imagery to create works that are inspired by our daily lives. Ciro is currently an MFA candidate at the Vermont College of Fine Arts.

North By Northwest CBC Radio Interview

Ceramics artist Ciro Di Ruocco takes on the opioid crisis

with Matthew Parsons

 

I would like to extend a warm thank you to Sheryl McKay and

Associate Producer Mathew Parsons for having me on the show.

 

In Canada:

https://www.cbc.ca/listen/shows/north-by-northwest/episode/15572493

USA | International :

https://podknife.com/episodes/ceramics-artist-ciro-diruocco-takes-on-the-opioid-crisis

addiction advocacy art art & design artist blog British Columbia Canada CBC ceramic ceramics ciro DiRuocco creativity fear feelings handmade honesty Hope journey klout love manager marketing motivation mural music music festival Nanaimo Narcolepsy Opioid Crisis Potter Pottery Project Sleep ROTW2014 Sleep sleep in social media summer truth vancouver island vancouver Island Pottery supply Vancouver Island University Vermont visual art Visual Artist

Nanaimo-based ceramic artist uses pottery in fight against the opioid crisis!

‘Ceramics brought community into my life and I’m really grateful for that”

Ciro Di Ruocco, a ceramic artist and recovering addict based in Nanaimo, B.C., uses his work as a form of advocacy for the opioid crisis and other issues that impact his life like sleep disorders. (Ciro Di Ruocco/Facebook)

After a decade of battling addiction, artist Ciro Di Ruocco found community and peace at the pottery wheel.

Di Ruocco got serious about ceramic art when he was in recovery in Nanaimo, B.C., for oxycontin and fentanyl addiction.

“When the clay is spinning at the wheel I’m not in stuck my head, I’m just thinking about what’s in front of me,” he told North By Northwest producer Matthew Parsons.

“I felt the most present when I was at the pottery wheel, and I felt like I walked away — sometimes — with something to show for what I did.”

After his family and close friends hosted an intervention, Di Ruocco travelled across the continent, from Vermont to Vancouver Island, to seek treatment for his addiction.

When he got to Nanaimo, he found a drop-in pottery studio close by. He could once again try his hand at the artform he’d set aside in high school and it fit into his treatment schedule.

The seriousness of Di Ruocco’s addiction began after a soccer injury in college. He remembers the strange feeling of realizing his body was detoxing the painkillers he was taking.

“I remember waking up one day and being like, ‘Why do I keep getting the flu?’ Really I was detoxing from this medication and it feels like the flu,” he said.

“You’re not even wanting to get high in the end … It’s really hard to explain to someone, this fear of being sick that’s driving your addiction — that it’s not enjoyment, it’s torture.”

Di Ruocco’s work is his form of advocacy, and a way to express the powerlessness he felt when his friends were dying around him of overdoses.

The community he formed while living in Nanaimo helped him feel like a “functioning member of society,” he said, after years of isolating addiction.

“What I found through art was I had something interesting to talk about and I was able to reach an older group of people that I now have this common language with,” he said. “Ceramics brought community into my life and I’m really grateful for that.”

 

Source:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/nanaimo-based-ceramics-artist-uses-pottery-in-fight-against-the-opioid-crisis-1.4774609

Art Achievement Award!

The Nanaimo Arts Council is pleased to announce the winners of the 2015 Arts Achievements Awards

Focused at the wheel
Focused at the wheel

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I’m on the front cover of the Nanaimo Daily News! Go Sleep In 2015

"They were doing it for issues around the Vietnam War, and we're doing it for sleep health; not just about narcolepsy but to bring more awareness to North Americans that sleep is imperative to people's health," said Di Ruocco. "As we get busier, as a population. .. we slack on the sleep and that has effects on everyone's health, not just the person with narcolepsy or insomnia or sleep apnea."

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Always in my heart. I miss my friend.

As I lay in bed hallucinating, waiting to fall asleep, I see a brighter future for the place I grew up. Maybe my experience can help. I don't have a desire to live back in Vermont but I would like to be of service. How can I do that? How can I impact a change to a place stricken by prescription pills and heroin, my home that I am proud to be from but scared for friends and family.

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Made by hand: reflection why part II

Lately I have been struggling of sorts. Approaching my 30's and reflecting back over my 20's. So what has changed? That feeling of invincibility has evaporated.. The notion of wanting to be good at everything looks unrealistic from where I sit today.

What if I only have time to be great at a few things? What if I can only be masterful at one craft?

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Masters of Expression: Why do you create art?

Ceramic work and the dedication it evokes has given me a renewed sense of self-confidence. When I am at the wheel, I don't feel tired. I am not fighting off sleep. I am just innocent and me. The clay reflects back an honesty about where I am at that I am unable to see in the mirror. It teaches me self-care, patience, and humility. Without that perspective of self.. I am lost.

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