“The overall idea of the class is building a a greater breadth of work and a stronger portfolio. Not everyone needs a “portfolio” for applications, but everyone can better their work by seeing it as an overall statement rather than singular pieces. I will focus on each student taking significant steps in improving their work. Idea growth is the goal.
“Demonstrations will be both wheel-throwing and hand-building pots including my personal technique of bisque molds. The first few weeks will cover forms for drinking, serving, pouring, and vessel statements. The last half of the class will be for the student to focus their own personal goals.
“We will also be working at a firing temperature that very few potters use. I am pushing myself to work at Cone 3, which means I have to research every glaze and surface. There is little public information on this, so the discoveries are exciting and I hope students will taste the depth of the ceramic process by removing themselves from the same 12 shop glazes in every educational studio.
“I teach a great class and I push people and invite them to think. People leave my class stronger and hungry for more.”
Matt Kelleher is a studio potter working in Marshall, in the mountains of western North Carolina. From 2005 to 2008, he was a resident artist at Penland School of Crafts. Matt has also been an artist in residence at Archie Bray Foundation in Helena, MT (1999-2001) and Shigaraki Ceramic Cultural Park in Shigaraki, Japan (2003). He has taught at the Hartford Art School in Connecticut, Alfred University in New York, and Ohio University in Athens. As Matt continues a 15-year investigation of soda-fired tableware, he has broadened his interests to include sculptural vessels, bird-inspired forms, and collaborative work with Shoko Teruyama (who will be teaching right next door in the lower clay studio).
Four of Penland’s core fellowship students – Rachel Mauser, Bob Biddlestone, Rachel Garceau, and Molly Spadone – showed some cooperative spirit and a keen sense of balance this week, as they washed the windows of Morgan Hall, their home on campus. (Photo by Liz Koerner)