MEET THE ARTISTS
Kristen Buck @crookedcuriousities
Kristen lives in her own goddamn house in Paoli, Pennsylvania and converts half of her residence into an artists' studio - glazing pieces in the kitchen and firing in the kiln in the laundry room. Her work is dark and whimsical - marrying the concepts of death and magic into everyday household talisman.
All ceramic pieces are handmade and one of a kind - made by using only slab construction and hand building techniques. As a result all the pieces have a beauty that is asymmetrical & imperfect - mirroring everyday life by acknowledging three simple realities: nothing lasts, nothing is finished, and nothing is perfect.
Pam Lethbridge @pamlethbridge
All that has occurred under the surface, during the dream and long ago influences my work. I call this “private play” my PST, Personal Shadowy Tale. I am not attempting to convey a message, just a feeling. The figures are at once vulnerable, sweet and frightening. I am particularly interested in their relationship to each other. When a figure is alone it calls out to be tenderly picked up. If in a group, each has an obvious attachment to the other.
Each ceramic piece is hand built using pinched, coiled and slab techniques. I use dark brown stoneware clay with commercial underglazes layered on top. The pieces are single fired in an electric kiln to cone 4. All vintage fabric is hand sewn and hand embroidered.
Lisa Muller @lisamullerstudio
I approach each painting or drawing with the same curiosity I have for any new place I visit, wondering what might happen next. This helps me to surrender my (perceived) authority over the materials, again coming to terms with the fact that I can never completely predict their behavior. It seems I’m doomed to endlessly re-appreciate the innate character of each medium.
Through layer after layer of collage, texture, and paint, I first build an abstract surface which could easily stand as a finished painting. The figurative imagery that I work into the abstraction weaves in and out through more layering, until the two depend on each other. Sifting through stacks of daily moments in my head, I look for magic in commonplace experiences, and hope in desperate ones.
When I’m successful, something new steps forward that synthesizes my thoughts and obsessions. Multiple narratives unfold, often reflecting on the way animals - human or non-human - intersect, or on some emotional state that grips me. Usually both. Elements within these open-ended stories stray toward the surreal, the magical, and places that can only be visited in the heart.
Jeanine Pennell @bonetownstudio
I work in kiln fired paperclay creating quirky, whimsical figures that draw you in to deeply human stories. My pieces are poised between the safety of whimsy and the darkness of the things we find hard to say. Faces as well as objects convey vulnerability and evoke story lines. Each figure is hand sculpted and hand painted in underglaze washes, typically fired multiple times to create a gritty, illustrative quality. Masks speak to explorations of vulnerability and to pretending to be someone you are not, both as a child and as an adult.
My work is like a found object or secret doorway inviting you into an entire world.