Jen’s website: http://www.jenallenceramics.com/

Plinth gallery: http://plinthgallery.

This month Plinth Gallery Artist interview is with Jen Allen.  Her show opens First Friday June 4, which is also the third anniversary of Plinth Gallery.  Jennifer makes truly beautiful ceramics. Her functional pottery forms “describe contrasts between modesty and generosity, grace and awkwardness” while they relate to her love of sewing through details such as folds, seams, darts, and pillow-like handles. Jen’s exquisite pottery is the way she, communicates with the home, the hand, and the mind.”

How did you become an artist?

I’m not really sure that I became an artist; I think I’ve always been one. I have painted and drawn ever since I can remember. As a child, my father built my sister and I a miniature workbench next to his, so we could tinker with wood alongside him. I can’t remember a time in my life when I wasn’t building or creating something. My sophomore year of undergraduate school I took my first ceramics class. It was then that I choose to pursue an art degree over an education degree.

How would you describe your style?

Generous and graceful, useful and comfortable

One of the hardest things for artists to do is to stand apart from everyone else. How long did it take you to come up with your own style and signature look?

This question is a tough one to answer because I don’t know how long it’s actually taken me to develop a style. Consciously, probably since I was a beginning undergrad student. Every choice you make helps mold you in very specific ways. In retrospect, I can clearly see many common threads that span the 14 years that I’ve been working with clay. My “style” came together swiftly in graduate school. It was there that I learned how to look at my work objectively and hear what it was saying. When my intentions met up with the actual language each piece was speaking, I knew my work was honest and was my own. Developing a style is never something you seek out; rather, it’s something that just happens given time and determination. It’s something as unique and individual as DNA.

What is your inspiration for your pieces?

My inspiration comes from a myriad of sources. Most notably from landscape, textiles, home, food and historical crafts.

 

What keeps you motivated?

I’m kept motivated by my husband, my dogs, my students and my constant need to speak more clearly through my work.

Are you a full-time artist? How do you come up with your creations? Can you walk us through your creative process when dreaming up new pieces?

Yes, I am a full time artist. When creating new pieces, I often start by thinking of utilitarian forms made to fulfill specific purposes in the home. Next, I sketch many iterations of each form. I post these sketches in front of my wheel and construct quick 3-D sketches of my favorite drawings. From there, I’ll refine the one’s I feel are the most successful.

I go through a similar process when coming up with new decorative motifs. I research textile designs from certain eras, when design was influenced by times of renewal, prosperity and optimism. Specifically, I look to kimono patterns from Edo period, Japan, post WWII textile design, and Arts and Crafts era design. I then sketch a blending of these sources on scraps of paper and post them on my studio walls. When it comes time to decorate my work, I’ll look to my drawings as inspiration.

How do you maintain a healthy work and life balance?

The truth is, I don’t. I’m definitely a workaholic. I would like to have more balance in my life and am constantly trying to figure out how to do it successfully.

 

You, like most people enjoy the process of making and crafting and didn’t get into it for the sake of “business”. But eventually you found yourself having to make the transition from crafter to a businessperson. What have you learned so far and what advice can you give others in the same situation?

Choose how you want to establish yourself in your local, national and global communities. Know that these decisions are going to make distinct differences in your career choices. As for specifics… keep all records and receipts!!! Keep track of all incoming revenue and outgoing expenses. Set money aside to pay state and federal taxes. Be mindful of loss rates and adjust if need be.

What advice can you give aspiring artists struggling to find their own voice and look?

 

If you are searching for a style, you’ll never find one. It’s not something that happens overnight, it’s a process that takes years to develop. Always be aware of the current trends in ceramics and have an extensive understanding of ceramic history. Make a lot of work, but don’t make it thoughtlessly. Be conscious of your creative choices, be in the moment with your work and be able to access your work objectively in order to move it forward. Eventually you’ll notice sensibilities that remain constant throughout. When this happens, you’ve gotten closer to identifying what “your work” looks like.

Thank you so much!  I can’t wait to see your show.

I have been a fan of Lana Wilson’s work for years. I’m thrilled that she was willing to participate in an interview. Lana’s interview talks about her 40 year love of clay, her new series of functional work. She is so generous she shares with us colored slip recipes at the end of the interview.

Check out Lana’s website here.

Tell us a little about yourself.

I became an artist because being a teacher’s aid at Pasadena Art Museum for children’s classes was so much more exciting than student teaching in the public school. So I decided I would just become an art teacher instead of a regular teach-all-the-subjects elementary school teacher. Then the teacher I was working under (for free, of course) told me the shocking disconcerting news that I couldn’t teach children’s art on enthusiasm alone. She told me we would decide the following week what to do. So my senior year at Occidental College over a glass of lemonade, after I had cleaned all the children’s paint brushes she announced I had to go to art school if I wanted to be a children’s art teacher. I took her word as gospel. I only applied to one school: California College of Art (and Crafts, as it was then) in Oakland and took up residence in Berkeley in the 60′s. This was a good plan with far reaching great consequences.

How would you describe your style? One of the hardest things for artists to do is to stand apart from everyone else. How long did it take you to come up with your own style and signature look?

Right now I would describe my style as inspired by ethnic fabrics from India, South America, Africa and Bali. I finally figured out how to get some of the batik and other pattern technique effects using colored slips. How long did it take me to develop my style? Well, you can skip looking at anything I made for my first 10 years. I have had about 8 or so periods in my work. The first period would be described as hopeful wandering. The second was functional, cone 9 reduction in my beloved Alpine kiln. Then I did eggshells embedded in porcelain and saggar fired with kelp for vases (yep, nonfunctional) on pedestals, chairs, and boxes with drawers. Then I moved on after a few years as every period lasts two to eight years, to porcelain with metallic salts. I made vases and boxes with workable drawers and more vases during that period. Then we moved and I had to fire in an electric kiln so my lichen fascination started. Vases, teapots, more boxes with workable drawers appeared. Then came ritual boxes and dry glazes and an emphasis on bright colored layered very dry surface glazes. Then when my first grandchild was born I started doing functional again. I couldn't give them away. Even my daughters didn't want them. So it was like the hopeful wandering again. Then I hit upon black and white with slivers of color and now lotsa color. I didn't count the phases. The idea has always been to follow what fascinates me and slug through the six months to a year that it takes to figure it out. So that is eight phases in 40 years or an average of 5 years each. It has been so much fun but some of that hopeful wandering wasn't quite as fun.

                    

What is your inspiration for your pieces?

During this period of work my inspiration is process. I just am fascinated by what I notice while I am making things: process I paint the colored slips on and try new combinations of colors or thicknesses of slip together and dots of slip and spattering. Then when I drag a serrated edge across the soft leather hard clay, I notice skinny close together serrated teeth give me less white showing. Then when I roll it out with a rolling pin I see that it starts to look like some of my favorite cloth I have collected or seen in wearable artist’s work. So the excitement of continually watching what is happening and wanting to repeat some color combinations or inlays or colored slip applications and knowing I don’t want to repeat some things makes it a movable feast of involvement and fascination for me. 

  

What keeps you motivated?

What keeps me motivated is the process of discovery and getting a tiny bit better at it as I move through six months or a year of work. I do so love making things. I lose track of time. But I am also grateful and motivated by having requests for work. I remember when I first started all this about 40 years ago when someone first wanted to buy my work I felt I should pay them.

What also keeps me motivated is opening the kiln and figuring out how I did the parts I like and how to avoid the parts that did not work and what new possibilities it all suggests.

Are you a full-time artist? How do you come up with your creations? Can you walk us through your creative process when dreaming up new pieces?

I am a full time artist but I would have to qualify that as I am old enough now that I have to take naps and I can’t work as hard as I used to. But I don’t go out for breakfast or lunch, I work almost every single day and it is such a huge and dominant part of my life.

I come up with what I make through process. I just make stuff and try stuff out. For the way my pieces are I can draw shapes and get ideas but it is when I am trying things out that it begins to gel more in my mind. What the clay does is like a chat, "I’ll do this and then what will you do to keep this conversation going??" I do so love the discovery process that this "chat" draws me back.

Sometimes seaweed or branches on a tree inspire me to new shapes or seeing rocks or shapes of fields from an airplane make me think of new shapes for surface decoration or for teapot possibilities. This kind of process means I make many pieces that are not at all successful but they lead, maybe, to something worth keeping. Sometimes I go back and try an old idea and think of a new way to do it. 

What was it that made you want to start creating? Did something specific trigger it?

I’ve been making things in clay for over 40 years. I was not a child who drew all the time. One of my sisters was considered the family artist. I realize I am not particularly talented but all of my mom’s six kids are workers so my enormous interest, healthy work ethic and childish but excessively handy enthusiasm have helped me through all the failures that have resulted from my experiments. Just plain working a lot is key.

What or who inspires you?

Nature inspires me. The way green leaves fade into red, orange and brown are colors I want in my work, the way seaweed collects and lets lines and colors intermingle. I like old stuff too. Today I looked at old lampposts that were peeling green paint off an undercoat of red paint and then rust was bursting through. I love folk art from Asia. I love the fiber arts of shibori and the patterns of ikat from an island near Bali. The actual process of working inspires me, seeing what happens and paying attention to an accidental discovery in form or surface design and then trying to repeat it and improve it. 

How do you maintain a healthy work and life balance?

I am not sure that I do! I try though. I see my kids and grandkids but not enough. I see friends for dinner and events. But I don’t go out for breakfast or lunch. Cuts into the studio time way too much. I talk to distant friends on the phone. I do love to make things in the studio, that actually balances my life.

You, like most people enjoy the process of making and crafting and didn’t get into it for the sake of "business". But eventually you found yourself having to make the transition from crafter to a businessperson. What have you learned so far and what advice can you give others in the same situation?

I found that I needed to pack with two boxes so nothing breaks when I ship it, I learned to pack and invoice, I learned to charge a little less than what people might expect so I could sell easily, I learned not to be out for the last dollar, I learned to ask and seek and be open to the great suggestions or critiques people have given me that have so helped improve my work now that I am back into functional after 20 plus years of doing non-functional work. I have found having different sources of income, teaching, workshops and making work and writing a book has helped. Another thing I have learned, share what you know, it will come back to you. People will share with you and we all need this clay tribe.

What advice can you give aspiring artists struggling to find their own voice and look?

Pay absolutely fierce attention to what interests you and work a lot. Try ten variations on an idea before deciding it might not be worth your time. Don’t expect everything to come out of the kiln the way you thought it would. Look at other work a lot: paintings, clay, historical ceramics, plants, machines, folk art, architecture, fiber arts, jewelry, etc. Read autobiographies and biographies of visual artists. Enjoy your life, appreciate working with your hands and forget being a materialist. Trade with other artists. Give away a piece once in a while: makes the person who admired it feel great and you feel good too. Relish you get to make things!!!!!!!!

                     

Lana Wilson’s Colored Slips (Thanks to Denise Smith)

For the body of my present work I use paper clay, P’Clay from Aardvark, Rosette Gault’s functional formula for cone 6. This clay has solved many cracking problems with the bowls, teapots, etc. that I make.

To make the colored slips I use bone dry Half and Half cone 5 by Laguna. Then I add the mason stains below. If it says chartreuse 50% I weigh out 100 grams of small pieces of bone dry clay and add 50 grams of 6236 chartreuse. It mixes up more smoothly if I let it sit for an hour or so. With this basic system you can use any white clay, cone 04 to cone 10 and mix it with the percentages of the colored slips below. Then use a clear glaze for your cone temperature.

On a soft slab of clay I paint one or two coats of black slip on and let it dry before carving patterns with a serrated rib. This will be the underside of a plate or the inside of a cup. I turn over the slab and paint black again and when it is dry enough I paint different colors on top, blending them, spattering them, painting stripes, etc. When that is dry enough, I paint another layer of colored slips. When this is dry I use different serrated edges to carve through these slips. I press soft and hard with the serrated edge when dragging it across the clay to get different effects. I also use loop tools to carve out scoops of clay and take the pieces carved out (I call them fossils), turn them upside-down and inlay them back into the clay. The final step is to put a piece of newspaper on top of the slab and with a rolling pin, roll over the whole slab to flatten the serrated lines and firmly inlay the fossils. I almost always relish the subtle changes this final step yields.

COLOR SLIPS (mostly Mason Stains, mixed to cream consistency or thinner)

6600 black 8%

6485 a tan orange 20%

6024 Orange 30%

6236 Chartreuse 50%

6027 Tangerine 15%

6211 Pea Green 50%

6339 Royal (blue) 5 – 10%

6288 Turquoise 50% or 6242 10%

6069 Dark Coral 30%

6304 Violet 50%

50779 Red 18% (from U.S. Pigments, or a good red stain)

KATE THE YOUNGER CLEAR (by Richard Burkett) cone 5 to 6 electric

to use over the colored slips. Shiny, resistant to crazing, cool slowly.

Ferro frit 3195 70.00

EPK 8.00

wollastonite 10.00

silica 12.00

bentonite 2

Fun pictures of Lana’s garden!!

           

Lana thank you so much for your generosity and your interview.

My husband asked me the other day if I could move anywhere I wanted, where would I go. After I thought about it for a second, I said North or South Carolina, one or the other, because since I’ve started my blogging journey, I see this amazing clay community there. After I explained my answer he looked at me and said, “Oh, we have to stay in the Rocky Mountains.” Well, so much for hypothetical questions and dreaming. For now, I’m very happy to be part of this community via the internet, the next best thing.

Today’s interview is with Jen Mecca, and she lives in York, South Carolina. I love her ceramics. Her glazes are so luscious, and her surface designs are complicated, yet very whimsical. I’ve really enjoyed our conversations, and hope someday our paths will cross in real life.

Jen’s blog: http://jennifermeccapottery.blogspot.com

Become a fan of Jen’s on Facebook.

Tell us a little about yourself! 

I’m a full time Mom who also tries really hard to be a full time potter! In my spare time I teach art history and ceramics to balance out the bills with keeping a five person circus, which is my family chuggin’ along.

I grew up near Ithaca New York and moved to the south while in Junior high school. I come from a small but very close family and spent the majority of my childhood around my paternal grandparents who where Italian. Most of my memories of childhood center on the preparation of food, presentation, eating and the conversation that goes along with all these activities. When my family got up in the morning, the conversation at breakfast was about what we were going to have for dinner!

How did you become an artist?   

As a child I was diagnosed with dyslexia. In the 70’s children with reading disabilities where just getting recognized and helped for these sorts of things. I was lucky enough to have parents who where educators and did everything they could to get me help, encourage me and realize that although I had a disability and I was intelligent and gifted in the arts. My parents always encourage me to create and work as hard as I could at what I loved.

After four years of design school and one internship at an architectural firm I decided that the “business” of design was not offering as much creativity as I needed for a career so I quickly decided I needed to try something else and I found myself managing a large craft gallery in Durham North Carolina by the name of Cedar Creek Gallery. Here I was surrounded by potters and a family who made their living making and selling fine crafts. I was able to learn a lot about the business of owning a craft gallery as well as being a craftsperson. After three years of being on the retail end of the craft business one of the potters who had a studio there showed me how to throw a pot and I was hooked! I than went back to school at East Carolina and got another undergraduate degree in Fine Art and also my masters in ceramics.

How would you describe your style? One of the hardest things for artists to do is to stand apart from everyone else. How long did it take you to come up with your own style and signature look?  

My work has always been described as being whimsical and fun. I always have people come into my booth or studio and tell me that my pots make them smile. This is such a great compliment and although most potters don’t like it when people tell them there work is cute or fun, I guess it doesn’t bother me. I love what I do and I’m glad that the work speaks for itself. When I have a moment to be by myself in my studio, it is one of the most relaxing and enjoyable feeling that I experience in my hectic life.

It has taken me a long time to have my own voice and I am still working on this. I’m not sure I was taught to really reach deep down and bring out my own ideas. I have in the past taken what I have learned from other potters and used those techniques in my own work. Sometimes this has worked and sometimes it has not. For myself, I would love the opportunity to work alongside some other wonderful potters and just focus on my surface and “voice” more. In my world, I don’t always have the time to spend a whole weekend staring at one pot and really looking at what makes it my own ideas or someone else’s. I live a life of deadlines and multi-tasking so for the time being, I’ll keep doing the best I can in the amount of time I have to make work that is “my own”.

What is your inspiration for your pieces?  

I love to look at pieces from the turn of the century. Any art from the 20’s, 30’s and 40’s really catches my eye because it’s all about the MORE, MORE, MORE. I love detail and color. I love fabric and wrapping paper and fashion. This is what inspires my surface. As for my forms, I always have seen them as little cartoon characters. I think this use to illustrate itself a lot more in my work about 3 years ago. In that past few years I have been so focused on my surface that I have kept my forms pretty straightforward. I would like to re-visit the days when my pieces had an attitude and took on a more gestural look.

In my head my life is a running cartoon or sit-com and I’d like to show that in my work.

What keeps you motivated? 

Funny as it may seem, rejection letters keep me going. I don’t like anyone to tell me I can’t do something. I guess that stems from having trouble in school. If I don’t get into a juried show or a certain gallery I keep trying, over and over again. The initial blow hurts but I just tell myself that my work needs improvement and to just try again. Also, my pottery friends these days really keep me motivated. I have a few really close friends here in the Charlotte area the support we give each other really keeps me going. I wear many hats throughout the day and although I love making pots, at times its hard to keep applying to shows, keeping up with the current trends and choosing the best venues to show my work. I have a great support system that keeps me going!

Are you a full-time artist? How do you come up with your creations? Can you walk us through your creative process when dreaming up new pieces? 

I have a short attention span so coming up with new idea has never been a problem. In fact, I have to tell myself to keep making the same sort of forms and just perfecting them instead of moving onto all the new ideas that pop into my head on a daily basis.

When I do come up with an idea I sometimes sketch it out but usually when the wheel and hands meet up my vision sometimes changes. Once I make that first piece, I take it to shows and see what sort of reaction it gets. I would say the majority of the times, I have to tweak a piece three or four times to get it just the way it needs to be. Sometimes I make something and it doesn’t work but I come back to the same form in a year or so and re-evaluate what was working and what was not working.

What was it that made you want to start creating? Did something specific trigger it? 

I have always made things every since I was a child. I can remember trying to make a pair of high heeled sandals out of cardboard and ribbon when I was about 7. It has always just been something I’ve done. Now that I’m a Mom and my oldest child has endless projects for school, I jump at the challenge and chance to help him come up with the most creative and ornate projects he can dream up. We joke about how I say “Bring it on!”

What or who inspires you? 

While in grad school, I was really inspired by all the wonderful female potters who where current (and still are) like Suze Lindsey, Silive Granitelli, Sandy Parentozzi, Gay Smith and Linda Arbuckle. It wasn’t until I had my first child and really needed a mentor and someone who had been a Mother and a potter at the same time, I found a mentor in LindaChristenson.  I took a workshop with her in 2004 and even though we make totally different work and live different sort of life styles, she has inspired me to be a patient teacher and true to myself as a potter.   I’m a pretty introverted person so networking is not my strong suit. Linda, who is also sort of a funny but quiet individual, had great advice about being a part of a support system and just getting my work out there in as many show as I could enter. I’m still hearing these words or wisdom and I just think of them anytime I need some inspiration.

How do you maintain a healthy work and life balance?

OHHH…I’m not so sure I’m as good as I’d like to be at this. One more thing I’m trying to work on. I do exercise as much as I can. I walk and go to the gym. I have always tried to eat right and hopefully soon I will be able to start back at Yoga, which I think is really beneficial if you’re someone like me who is tightly wound at times and has a lot on her plate!  I have noticed in the last 2 years that my work habits, which usually centers around late night studio visits, is getting to be a bit much for my body. This year my new year’s resolution was to get more sleep. So instead of working in my studio from 8 to 11-12 every night, I try to stop working at 10pm. I have many hats to wear throughout the day and I do try my best to spend as much time as I can with my children, husband and also do what I love. My house on the other hand….suffers greatly. Just this year I was able to hire a cheap cleaning lady that comes when I’m in desperate need of some help. This is a true luxury and since she does not charge us a lot, it’s well worth it!

You, like most people enjoy the process of making and crafting and didn’t get into it for the sake of “business”. But eventually you found yourself having to make the transition from crafter to a businessperson. What have you learned so far and what advice can you give others in the same situation?

Keep good records of everything you buy, make and sell. I think a simple spread sheet to start off with is an important step. I’ve learned that you need to have a good relationship with any gallery owners you do business with. Make sure you ask lots of questions about who they do business and what they expect from you as a craftsperson and visa versa. Not every gallery that you encounter is always a right fit. Also make sure a gallery has been in business for a number of years or has some sort of know-how about the product they are dealing with before you send them your work. Same goes for craft shows. If possible, visit the show you are applying for to make sure it will suit your needs. Ask other craftspeople about what sort of cliental they have encountered at the show to make sure it will be beneficial to your sales.

I also believe that these days the internet is a very good resource for craftspeople these days and it is one that I’m slowly perusing and learning more about.

What advice can you give aspiring artists struggling to find their own voice and look?

Attend as many workshops and conferences as you can. Get together with other potters and talk about your work. Just make, make, make as much as you can and keep up with the current trends. Read and educate yourself about historic pottery and the different periods in art. Visit and really look at different types of work in art galleries and museums. It’s all about looking and really seeing what you are doing.

Thanks Jen, it’s been great getting to know you.

Cheers!!

Here is the family with our new drinking ware .  (Vander had to have a little help with his cheers.)  We are  taking them out for our first drive.  The tumbler in my hand is made by Brooke Noble.  It is sporting a beautiful woodpecker.  On the other side, it says “PECKER”, which just cracks me up.  The pottery pilsner is made by Jim Gottuso of Sofia’s Dad’s Pots.  The other side of it has a hand imprinted on to it, for better gripping power, after a few.  And last cup is a Diego cup of Go Diego Go fame.  Brooke’s tumbler followed me home from NCECA, Jim’s pilsner came to us via the mail from Jim’s Esty shop, and Van picked out his Diego cup from the Tar – zhary boutique.  As I opened the box that had Jim’s cup, I found a cute little surprise from Jim’s assistant, the amazing Sofia (aka “the bug”), she slipped in a little tile that she made.

I just found out that my work was accepted to 500 Vases by Lark books.  I’m very excited about the whole deal.  I’ve been lucky enough to be published in a couple of magazines, but this is will be my first time to be published in a book.  It has been such a long time since I applied, I had thought of it once or twice and assumed I had been rejected and never received the rejection letter.  The juror is Julia Galloway.  The book will be out in bookstores this coming fall.  Here are the pieces that got accepted. 

 

 

I am excited to report that I am now represented by Third Eye Art Consulting.   Carla Dillman, the owner, works with individuals and businesses, sourcing all media types including fine art prints, paintings, sculpture, fine furnishings, decor and site-specific architectural art. 

Check out Third Eye’s webiste here and my artist page here.