George E. Ohr
Jennifer Allen
Jennifer was born in 1976 in Silver Springs Maryland. As a child of a wildlife biologist, she lived in several states including Maryland, Massachusetts, Georgia and Alaska. The most impressionable move came in 1991, when her family left Atlanta, Ga for Anchorage, AK. In 1996, Jennifer discovered clay for the first time and hasn’t looked back. She received her BFA from the University of Alaska, Anchorage (2002) and an MFA from Indiana University, Bloomington (2006). For four years during undergraduate school, Jennifer worked for Bliss Pottery in Anchorage. There, she learned the business side of ceramics while fine-tuning her technical skills. She participated in all aspects of the business, from making/recycling/wedging clay and throwing/trimming piecework to loading/unloading kilns, receiving and filling orders, packing/ shipping and setting up the Bliss Pottery booth at various local craft fairs/markets. The knowledge and experience Jennifer gained as a potter’s assistant for a wholesale production pottery was invaluable. In the fall of 2002, Jennifer left Alaska to continue to pursue her career in ceramics. The move took her to Rochester, NY where she attended Rochester Institute of Technology’s School for American Crafts as a studio resident (2002-2003). After she finished up in Rochester, Jennifer was awarded a summer residency and Myhre Scholarship to attend the Archie Bray Foundation. Then, in the fall of 2003, she began her graduate studies at Indiana University in Bloomington where she received her MFA in 2006. Following school, Jennifer returned to the Archie Bray Foundation as the 2006-2007 Taunt Fellowship recipient. She was a resident artist at the Bray for two years and then was awarded a Meyer Fellowship to work as a resident artist at West Virginia University. In addition to long-term residencies, Jennifer also was granted a few short-term residencies in Maine and Montana. She teaches ceramics part time at West Virginia University and maintains a home studio. Jennifer frequently travels the country sharing her passion for clay through demonstrations and lectures. She is an active member of an online clay collective called Objective Clay, whose mission is to share ideas and new work. In addition to her Objective Clay commitments, Jennifer hosts a web series called “Potter of the Month”, where she interviews one potter each month and publishes the dialogue on her blog. Her work can be found in galleries and homes across the globe.
Work ranges from electric-fired earthenware to wood and salt fired stoneware to cone 10 porcelain with multiple firings (decal, over glazes, etc.). The gallery pages are meant to serve as a tool to hopefully show progression over the years. The fellowship helped alleviate most of my material and firing costs, but she still needed to get a part-time job so that she could afford to pay rent, pump gas and buy food. During my first year at the Bray, she spent a lot of time marketing. She developed a website (with the help of a web designer) and put together promotional packets to send off to galleries. Lots of money was allocated to business cards, postcards, paper clips, and résumé paper and printer ink. Still, she made sure to keep close track of all of her purchases in order to claim them as business expenses.
Her focus is to express sentiments of beauty and joy through porcelain tableware. Whether forming a vase that decorates a room or producing dinnerware that celebrates a meal, her work is made to honor and enhance the rhythms of home life. Driven to create for special occasions, she visualize the holiday table brimming with food, flowers and candlelight. After growing up in the mountains of Alaska as the daughter of a fish and wildlife biologist, she remain fascinated by the beauty and mystery of natural landscapes. From the breathtaking aurora borealis and mid-winter alpenglow in the Alaskan wilderness, to the drama of spring flora and the intensity of the Appalachian autumn, nature never ceases to inspire. As a result, she am compelled to interpret nature’s charm through color and surface. As a lover of textiles and sewing, she use details such as folds, seams, darts, pleats, tufts and ruffles to relate to the craft of a seamstress. It is important that these methods of construction are evident in each finished piece. Therefore, she choose solid color fields of glaze that break over edges and pool into recesses in order to highlight handwork and frame decoration. Decorative, floral imagery is gathered from specific textile sources created during times of optimism: post WWII textiles, Arts and Crafts Era designs and Edo period kimono fabrics. She renders motifs into lyrical compositions in order to foster a sense of merriment. Like a scroll for a player piano, it is important that her imagery moves fluidly across the surface of the form revealing itself through use. Determined to keep “handmade” an essential part of the contemporary home, her ongoing focus is to reinforce personal sentiments of beauty, joy, nourishment and celebration through porcelain tableware. Whether it’s a festive meal shared by many or a cup of hot cocoa indulged by one, she remains motivated by moments when pottery is in use. By making thoughtful, useful handcrafted pottery for the domestic landscape, she am inspired to enhance the home, engage the hand and enliven the spirit. She is inspired by a variety of sources: historical ceramics, textiles, fashion design, architecture, body art, patterns, pots used during special occasions, landscapes, textures, etc. This is an evolving image bank that gives a small window into my mind.
I LOVE HER WORK!!! I love how girly it is and the color pallet with the pastels worth the contrasting dark colors. I love the forms she creates with the porcelain and how smooth she makes the curves with the harsh edges the contrast is beautiful. I really want to incorporate this contrast in my own works and pottery.
Work ranges from electric-fired earthenware to wood and salt fired stoneware to cone 10 porcelain with multiple firings (decal, over glazes, etc.). The gallery pages are meant to serve as a tool to hopefully show progression over the years. The fellowship helped alleviate most of my material and firing costs, but she still needed to get a part-time job so that she could afford to pay rent, pump gas and buy food. During my first year at the Bray, she spent a lot of time marketing. She developed a website (with the help of a web designer) and put together promotional packets to send off to galleries. Lots of money was allocated to business cards, postcards, paper clips, and résumé paper and printer ink. Still, she made sure to keep close track of all of her purchases in order to claim them as business expenses.
Her focus is to express sentiments of beauty and joy through porcelain tableware. Whether forming a vase that decorates a room or producing dinnerware that celebrates a meal, her work is made to honor and enhance the rhythms of home life. Driven to create for special occasions, she visualize the holiday table brimming with food, flowers and candlelight. After growing up in the mountains of Alaska as the daughter of a fish and wildlife biologist, she remain fascinated by the beauty and mystery of natural landscapes. From the breathtaking aurora borealis and mid-winter alpenglow in the Alaskan wilderness, to the drama of spring flora and the intensity of the Appalachian autumn, nature never ceases to inspire. As a result, she am compelled to interpret nature’s charm through color and surface. As a lover of textiles and sewing, she use details such as folds, seams, darts, pleats, tufts and ruffles to relate to the craft of a seamstress. It is important that these methods of construction are evident in each finished piece. Therefore, she choose solid color fields of glaze that break over edges and pool into recesses in order to highlight handwork and frame decoration. Decorative, floral imagery is gathered from specific textile sources created during times of optimism: post WWII textiles, Arts and Crafts Era designs and Edo period kimono fabrics. She renders motifs into lyrical compositions in order to foster a sense of merriment. Like a scroll for a player piano, it is important that her imagery moves fluidly across the surface of the form revealing itself through use. Determined to keep “handmade” an essential part of the contemporary home, her ongoing focus is to reinforce personal sentiments of beauty, joy, nourishment and celebration through porcelain tableware. Whether it’s a festive meal shared by many or a cup of hot cocoa indulged by one, she remains motivated by moments when pottery is in use. By making thoughtful, useful handcrafted pottery for the domestic landscape, she am inspired to enhance the home, engage the hand and enliven the spirit. She is inspired by a variety of sources: historical ceramics, textiles, fashion design, architecture, body art, patterns, pots used during special occasions, landscapes, textures, etc. This is an evolving image bank that gives a small window into my mind.
I LOVE HER WORK!!! I love how girly it is and the color pallet with the pastels worth the contrasting dark colors. I love the forms she creates with the porcelain and how smooth she makes the curves with the harsh edges the contrast is beautiful. I really want to incorporate this contrast in my own works and pottery.