Unnatural nature
Southern Vermont Arts Center Solo Exhibition
Aug. 7 - Sept. 26, 2021
Describe a method or technique that’s integral to your artistic practice.
It is important to me that every part of my work be as unique as the nature that inspires me, so any texture, line, knot, and mark that you see is hand carved with an X-Acto knife. I have not counted the marks on any of these pieces, but I did once count as I carved a whiskey cup, and there were over 2000. It’s safe to say there are tens of thousands here!
My approach is minimalist but warm, a Nordic aesthetic influenced by my Swedish grandmother. I’m not aiming for a literal translation of a birch tree or burned log, or even rain drop. Rather, I aim to pare my concepts to their simplest elements, leaving enough to evoke a subtle feeling or memory.
How do you cultivate creativity in your own life?
You’ll often find me walking my dog in the woodlands or on the beaches near my house. I’m more likely to stray off of the path to explore a puddle or a piece of bark than my dog is to stray after a bunny! In my basement studio, I spend my time looking up at the slivers of sky and daydreaming about my childhood fantasies of being able to pick up puddles or squeeze water from rain clouds.
Interested in working with me to commission a similar piece? Contact me.
Unnatural Nature: I’ve always had a tactile imagination that likes to freeze moments in time. What would it be like to wring water from a cloud like a sponge? To catch a raindrop like it was a ball? To squeeze burned embers back together? To pluck a puddle from the ground and save its perfectly unique shape? Such unnatural thoughts about capturing the natural moments around me are the inspirations not only for my solo exhibition but for my studio practice each day.
Left to right in first image:
From the Grove, 20”h x 4.5”w x 4.0”d; Destructive Beauty, 11”h x 7”belly x 3”rim; Cloudburst, 10.5”h x 6”belly x 3”rim; Saturated, 7”h x 6”w x 6”d
Birch: Birches are my favorite members of the forest. I’m fascinated by their stark whiteness and distinctive patterns. Peeling the bark from the trees can be damaging and it’s very fragile, but my imagination’s instinct to preserve demanded that I capture bark-inspired moments in time. The textures for each porcelain piece are hand carved with an X-Acto blade. Slips and underglaze build up layers of character. The surfaces are raw so that when fired, you can feel the velvety bark, the grooves of the lenticels, and the rough knots in your hands. White gold luster accents lend a touch of added elegance.
Left to right clockwise:
Peeled, 18”h x 14”w x 2”d; From the Grove, 20”h x 4.5”w x 4.0”d; Double Peeled (set), 13”h x 36”w x 3”d; Peeled (detail), carvings + luster
Charcoal: Heavily burned wood has a complex and fragile texture that intrigues me. Its burn patterns seem both spontaneous and mathematical, and its deep black surfaces sparkle. When I realized that I couldn’t carry a burned log home for inspiration without it crumbling, my desire to freeze time kicked in again. I often create vessels that you might see turned on a wood lathe or peeled from a log. Pieces are white porcelain with thick layers of black slip. Each texture is again hand-carved and raw to contrast with fields of glossy black glaze. Drippy gold luster acts like burnt golden sap and adds another layer of striking contrast.
Left to right clockwise:
Reconstructed (set), 20”h x 24”w x 3”d; Destructive Beauty, 11”h x 7”belly x 3”rim; Stumped (jar detail), 12”h x 6”w x 7”d; Charred (detail), 19”h x 15”w x 2.5”d
Saturation: I used to wish I could touch the clouds. They would be squishy like marshmallows, and a gentle squeeze would release perfect, individual raindrops that would hold their shapes like glass. These days, the view from my basement studio is mostly sky. Watching the clouds roll by brought my tactile fantasies back to mind and set me on another path to freeze the moment. My rain, cloud, and puddle inspirations are realized in minimalist forms with curves and alterations that create a sense of delicate fluidity, or airy weightlessness. Light, shadow, and reflection (via white gold accents) act as surface decoration for these ethereal forms.
Left to right clockwise:
Downpour #4-7, 36”h x 16-24”w x 4”d; Torrential (set), 7.5”h x 44”w x 8”d; Splash, 5.25”h x 15”w x 13”d; Cloudburst, 10.5”h x 6”belly x 3”rim
Asked to describe one work on view with an interesting backstory, I chose Destructive Beauty:
Destructive Beauty (vase), one of my favorite works to date, was entirely unplanned! It started as a demo for my online students during COVID. I was teaching them to create a large vessel from two smaller pieces, and I was paying far more attention to the steps I was teaching than to the end product I was making. I had planned to recycle the vase, but something about the form inspired me to keep it. Not only did it end up in this show, but it was the first piece on which I experimented with the idea of combining texture and glaze on the surface of my Charcoal Collection (which focuses on my fascination with deep, black, burned wood) rather than texture alone. The juxtaposition is now central to my work, and may not have happened without this demo for my amazing students!
K. Allison Ceramics is Kimberly Allison. Born in Southern Massachusetts, Kim studied film production and graphic design at Boston University, graduating in 2005. She spent more than a decade as a corporate graphic designer in Boston. In 2012, she took her first ceramics class as a date night with her husband and immediately became enamored with clay. After four years of immersing herself in classes and studio workshops, Kim shifted careers to pursue ceramics full time. Her backgrounds in film and in design contribute to her love of storytelling and her enthusiasm for the art of making by hand. Kim works out of her Salem, MA home studio with her graphic designer husband, their crazy black cat, and their “studio assistant” pup. Her work can be found in fine art and fine craft fairs, galleries, exhibits, and online shows in New England and beyond. She is also a ceramics instructor at The Clay School in Lynn, Massachusetts.