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The Artisan Gallery is pleased to announce the opening of an exhibit of the ceramic artist Sequoia Miller .
Saturday, October 6 through Sunday, November 18
Opening Reception with the artist: Saturday, October 6, 5-8
APPROACH
I love making pottery, and feel fortunate to be a
potter. I produce each piece myself from start to
finish. I make many pots, and every one is individual.
Each time I make a pot I try to endow it with its own
life. This life comes from an active balance of the
form's tradition, its use, how I made it the previous
time, memories of ones I've seen in the past, ideas
I've had but never tried, etc. When I make a group of
cups, I recall what I was thinking about in the last
series of cups, what I liked and didn't like about
them, and what I'd like to try. It's like this with
all of my pots.
Some forms change quickly and others slowly, but all
are in a state of fluidity. My hope as a studio potter
is to make the best work I can Ð and to find out over
time what exactly that means.
BACKGROUND
My first clay classes were as a youth with Toby
Rosenberg, a potter in Portland, Maine.
I began in clay in earnest some years later, after
graduating from college, when I came across Mark
Shapiro, a potter in western Massachusetts. Mark
encouraged me to study at Penland School in North
Carolina, where before long I was there learning from
Douglass Rankin & Will Ruggles.
Douglass & Will are the potters who awoke in me a
meaningful way of understanding pots. They introduced
me to the art and philosophy of mingei, or the
Japanese folk-craft movement. They are for me a direct
link to the work of Shoji Hamada, Bernard Leach, and
Warren MacKenzie. Douglass and Will also introduced me
to the process of wood-firing.
Since that formative experience, I have also learned
from Michael Simon, Linda Christianson, Nick Joerling,
MacKenzie Smith, Terry Gess and Chris Staley. I
embrace the act of making as the most effective means
of learning. This philosophy was passed on to me by
Douglass & Will. My ideas emerge through the
continuity of a daily studio practice, rather than in
advance of it.
PROCESS
I work alone in my studio on a wooden treadle wheel,
crafted by Doug Gates in North Carolina. My studio is
next to my house. Behind the studio I have gas kiln
where I fire nearly all of my work. I use a dark
stoneware clay, and mix up traditional glazes akin to
ones developed in Japan and China centuries ago.
I begin nearly every piece on my potters' wheel. Many
of my pots are faceted. This is where I slice a blade
or wire through an extra thick clay wall, leaving an
arcing flat surface. This creates a series of planes
and angles, which I find very engaging.
I also alter many wheel-thrown forms. Altering is any
type of pushing or squeezing of a round pot to make a
different shape. Many of my pots begin round, but end
up square, six sided or flat.
I love making a wide variety of different forms: jars,
teapots, and vases as well as cups and bowls. Each has
a different type of complexity that engages a
different part of my imagination.
Swimming Deer Pottery - sequoiamillerpottery.com
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