Ceramics/Pottery
Dorothy Allen, Room 316
For the past eight years I have been immersed in the craft of pottery, producing sculptural as well as functional ceramic pieces. The work is usually made from mid-fire stoneware as well as high-fire sculptural clays. It is varied as I explore the traditional craft of throwing at the wheel and the more ancient practice of hand building. I also use clay for making sculpture and at times combine it with practical function.
Patiently, I enjoy every step in the long process of creating a final version of each piece. Prior to creating ceramic pieces I painted in oil and drew using pastels and pencil, usually portraiture and life figure. I have taken art courses at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design, Monserrat College, Bennington College and the Tufts Museum School. I participated in numerous workshops, having the privilege of learning from many respected artists. I exhibited work at Monserrat College, the Marblehead Arts Association and local fundraising venues. On a parallel path I received biology and engineering degrees from Bowdoin College and UMass Amherst and have worked professionally for US EPA and Massachusetts DEP.
Currently, I maintain a ceramic studio in Swampscott and participate at the Clay School in the Pinkham Building, Lynn. The atmospheric firings are accomplished at the Truro Center for the Arts and Ben Eberly’s Train kilns, or within the Anagama kiln on Chris Gustin’s property in South Dartmouth. Either in solitude of the private studio, in company at the clay school or amongst the shadows during the long dark hours of arduous wood firings I feel connected to people who share with each other the long history and tradition of finding their way with clay. The direct inspiration to move clay, however, arrives to me from nature as it reveals itself to the eye and the heart.
Each ceramic piece is often unlike its idea at inception and unlike its many succeeding forms. However, upon close inspection it reveals its progress through time and the bowl in the end arrives in your hand just as it is. This is also true of human beings, so too all living and non-living forms, we all wind our way along an evolutionary path, develop a personal journey, change, arrive to be held.
