| Introduction |
my name is Kristen. I live south a bit from Seattle, Washington (US). I am originally from Minnesota and the “mingei” aesthetic of that local pottery is something Ive grown up around and with and therefore does influence my works quite. I love roughness and texture and a grounded color palette. Not alot of fuss in my works. I adore reduction firing but must use oxidation /electric firing for my own kiln. So I am learning to incorporate what effects I can from that. I am interested in history and architecture and how it translates to pottery.
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| What I Love about Ceramics |
It is so varied and endless and so of the hand, directly. The idea of something from ‘almost nothing’ (though I would argue its not nothing to be mud and dirt) is fascinating to me. And how long ceramics has been and is, what a thought to be part of what could be so timeless.
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| How I started with ceramics |
I was finishing my college degree and needed some electives so I took a ceramics class, the one art Id not done even as an art major at one time. I think it took about an hour before I had become smitten by it all and sad by the time I’d missed not creating in this medium. Guess it wasn’t my time until then.
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| What inspires me |
antiques, modern art, architecture, typography, history and the journeys that material goods and people go on throughout time. I like simple and understated and what our environment shows us.
I grew up with art (and artifacts) all around me to learn from, touch and be influenced by; Southwestern Native American pottery and rugs, Eskimo/Inuit stone sculptures, Minnesota (Mingei) folk pottery and so many antiques. And the artifact, the journeys its’ travelled, who used it, held it, and left it behind matters and intrigues me. These pieces leave their mark, a tangible definition of sorts, of who we are, in some intrinsic way.Â
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| What I'm working on at the moment |
Platters.
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| My Artist Statement |
I like to create studio ceramics that have the essence of making a singular statement, a glimmer of beauty, and either put into practical use or merely touched, looked at and responded to. Pottery is ‘of the ground’ wet mud, dry clay, coaxed and worked by hands, fired in high heat, and enduring. Used in the everyday, handmade pottery makes the everyday that much sweeter. The sometimes simple objects of the regular goings-on of life, are what we gauge our routines, our comforts, our existence. They are hardly unimportant, they are tiny markers, between style and sensibility that signify our being here. In my ceramics work, each piece is truly coming from my hands, placed into yours.
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