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Check out our May exhibit,"Storied Surface," from our friends/residents at the Clay Studio of Missoula!
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"Storied Surface is a celebration of the complex geology of the skin of the world - the marks left by fire, by erosion, and by human labor and expression. Clay has a special ability to capture a sense of history through the accumulation of materials within the firing process. Each of the artists of the current cohort at the Clay Studio of Missoula address the question of surface with their specific approach, often engaging with atmosphere, texture, and form to illuminate an aesthetic world in their own way. Ethan Arias, Yve Holtzclaw, Heather Lepp, Kayla Noble, and Krissy Ramirez together invite you to peer into the world with curiosity and to notice the ornamentation of material that we are surrounded by on this earth."
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Opening Reception: May 2, 5-9pm. Visit in-person May 2nd, any day M-F 10-12pm, or Thursdays 12-4pm until May 23rd.
Works are available online as well starting May 2nd.
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The artists displaying in "Storied Surface" are:
Ethan Arias
Heather Lepp
Kayla Noble
Krissy Ramirez
Yve Hotzclaw
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See more info below about each artist...
Artists
ETHAN ARIAS
Guest Artist
@eapottery
About​
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Drawing from my engineering background, my creative approach blends scientific principles with artistic exploration. I focus on variables like clay body, kiln design, and volatile materials to shape surface effects influenced by thermodynamics and chemistry. While precision guides my craft, it’s the unpredictability of atmospheric kilns that inspires my philosophy. In these moments of uncertainty, I relinquish control and embrace the chaos, allowing each piece to emerge as a unique reflection of the dynamic forces at play. This balance between control and unpredictability mirrors the complexities of human relationships and identities, inviting connection and reflection through each creation.
HEATHER LEPP
Guest Artist
@heatherlepp
About​
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In contrast to our current fast-paced society, my conceptual framework is shaped by poets, philosophers and artists which call to be present in life’s daily pleasures. This outlook drives me to create utilitarian pottery that serves a need in my daily life with an emphasis equally placed on beauty and practicality. Inspired by historical folk pottery, I strive for my work to feel comforting and simple while incorporating a contemporary complexity of form through alteration. Each piece is trimmed using homemade tools to create an appearance of being hand-hewn. Multiple layers of slip break over the carved edges, and upon firing the work in an atmospheric kiln the result is a surface that appears worn as if well-loved through years of use. My practice evolves on a continuum through repetition of forms that change slowly through time, examination, and use. In the studio I chase the minute details of a pot; the way the belly of the form holds volume and space, how the handle feels between index and thumb, the emotive quality of the colour. With this attention to detail, it is my intention as a maker to create thoughtful utilitarian wares that are used to enrich the everyday.
KAYLA NOBLE
Guest Artist
@kaylanobleceramics
About​
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Woodfiring is an homage to the unpredictable, the primal, and the beautifully imperfect. Driven by the pursuit of form, I craft vessels that search for the expressive potential of clay. I pair methodical caresses with guttural and instinctive decisions to build gravity-defying shapes that speak to containment and openness. Some vessels show off their insides, asking to be filled, while others nearly complete themselves, suggesting a full and expansive interior space. The fired piece tells a story of wood ash, time, and material transformation- an homage to geologic processes that form ceramic material. The material lives cyclically- movement and fluidity turn into stone and stillness over and over again. My making methodology and firing process leans into dialectical relationships of emotional and empirical research- control and vulnerability. Clay bodies are systematically developed and tested for color, surface quality, workability, and strength. Understanding material and process on a deeply technical level opens the door for transcendental experience where gut and intuition exercise authority.
KRISSY RAMIREZ
Guest Artist
@rebelwareceramics
About​
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Originally from a border town neighboring Mexico, Krissy Ramirez utilizes experiences from ‘la frontera’ in her ceramic work. From textured plaster walls and detailed carved bricks these illustrative components compliment each other as inspiration from the Mexican homes she grew up in. Serving as a cathartic vehicle, she incorporates washed out graffiti in spanglish on her wares. With these illegible “tags” she is able to draw thoughts on the life of a Latina woman living so far away from her raza (people) while keeping Mexican roots alive with her ceramics.
YVE HOLTZCLAW
Guest Artist
@yve.ceramics
About​
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Yve’s work focuses on the intersecting forces of wild and domestic through interdisciplinary installations of anthropomorphized climate, animals, and architecture. Interested in giving a face to forces and creatures who blend into our urbanized landscape, their work explores the inescapable enmeshment and interaction of the built and grown environment through portraits constructed from materials which span ceramic, fiber, metal, wood and paint. Focusing on the spectacle of decaying architecture, Yve considers the nature of American expansionism to be a withering thing, equally fallible by the whims of ever-increasing environmental forces as any other idea or place. In this way, their desire has been to document, draw attention, and give a voice to the places that embody their resistance to the mold they were pressed against. I explore the often slow, and sometimes sudden, ways that the earth reclaims itself.
CLAY STUDIO OF MISSOULA
@THE_CLAY_STUDIO_OF_MISSOULA
About​
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The Clay Studio of Missoula’s goal is to provide the general public with affordable access to high-quality ceramic art instruction. We strive to fulfill this goal by: 1) offering a wide array of ceramics classes and workshops to adults and children of all levels of skill; 2) providing local ceramicists with inexpensive access to studio space and professional quality equipment; 3) hosting resident artists from across the country who are able to share their ideas, experiences, and techniques with our students; and 4) holding exhibitions of contemporary ceramic works and representing an array of regional ceramic artists in our gallery.
Founded in 1998 by former University of Montana students, the Clay Studio of Missoula was established to fill a void in Missoula’s growing community—the need for a comprehensive ceramic center where community classes could be held and where serious but less established ceramicists could access studio space and professional quality equipment at a reasonable cost. On March 1, 1999, the Clay Studio of Missoula was incorporated as a Montana non-profit corporation and a 501(C)(3) charitable entity recognized by the Internal Revenue Service.