Vase

Photos

About the artist

Hillary Kane

I am interested in subtlety. In the luminosity of a thousand delicate hues that come to pronounce one color only when taken in all together. Of a surface built up slowly of many layers, textures and considerations. In an idea that blends observation and intention with spontaneity and intuition.

I am particularly drawn to wood fired ceramics perhaps specifically because of this: a firing process that requires days of physical and mental concentration from the community of participants and exacts an intense "letting go" of expectations when it comes to considering individual pieces. I delight in the coincidence of slow-earned knowledge and undefined chance, and the recognition that each singular work, in the end, comes to represent a unique voyage through the elements, through time, through the serendipity of experience much like we ourselves voyage through life. Ash patinas blossom like lichen on shoulders and rims, as flame licks and flashes subtle patterns in the crevices between feet: even simple vessels are wont with an intricate depth.

I create forms in response to the metaphor that the natural world presents and the human world echoes: fence posts translate into figures in procession; seed pods become delicate drinking vessels... My ceramic work teeters between function and sculpture. It is about the tactile medium itself, the process of its revelation, and the endless reinterpretation of influences from far and near, stories stored throughout a lifetime.

For the past many years, Hillary Kane, artist, teacher, nomad, has cultivated a wonder in that which is unfamiliar: that which challenges customs, aesthetics and perspectives. Her interest in exploring the world has taken her on journeys far and wide, working, studying, learning. Departing Colby College in 1997 with a degree in painting and art history, she soon followed the long-engrained impetus to seek the languages and lore, images and inspiration of distant lands and distant peoples. Her travels took her from Cameroon as a Peace Corps volunteer, to China as an ESL teacher, through France, Italy, Ireland, Portugal and Spain as everything from art student to sheep herder, apprentice to tutor. And no matter the locale or activity, each voyage became an opportunity for independent research into the local traditional artistry, filling her own reservoirs deep. Two years toil in the clayey red earth of West Africa in combination with the visual impact of indigenous architecture: round clay huts built like giant pinch pots, led to a thirst to work in clay and a desire to honor the entire process of making. Likewise, the landscape and city layout, fabric and patterns, music and pathos of each distinct location all infused Hillary with a sensitive and rich visual repertoire. Penland School of Crafts served as her introduction to wood-fired ceramics, while an intensive internship at a pottery in Connecticut solidified the strength of her interest in wood kilns. From New England to New Mexico, where she assists in running a ceramics gallery and continues wood firing, she is fueled by the years of experience, finally harnessing all the stimulus harvested along the way and letting loose her creativity in the form of pottery, sculpture, painting, illustration and batik.

See all by Hillary Kane

Back

Back to Items by Rustam Engineer