I’ve been a graphic designer, a technical illustrator and a painter for over 20 years, but when I touched clay for the first time, I was thoroughly captivated and haven’t looked back since. Clay is an art form that combines everything I love: the relationship between form and function, design, fine craftsmanship, color and texture. I like the wet clay stage best: the rawness and true nature of the material exposed and the wonderful, supple way the forms feel in my hands. Once the work goes through the bisque and glazing process, some amount of control is lost. Often things don’t make it through the firing, not in the way one hopes anyway. It’s always a risk, but that’s where Alchemy comes in and sometimes if you’re lucky you get something truly remarkable and unexpected, another aspect besides the ”Zen of Centering” that attracts and holds my attention like no other medium. The best part of the process is opening the kiln at the end of a firing and taking out each layer of kiln shelves, revealing a treasure hidden underneath and cementing the surprise factor that has captured me so well.
melynn allen 