Colleen Gallagher
Ceramics
Swallowtail
Two Mantises
Jelly Vase
Jelly
Description:
My functional vases, pottery and tiles are handbuilt of stoneware. I do a lot of surface decoration on my pieces before they enter the kiln, drawing with flashing slips and oxides. The pieces are fired in a woodburning kiln which deposits wood ash and flashes of color. Some of them have additional flashing from saltglaze, which is introduced into the woodkiln at high temperature. I seek a balance point in the fire; just enough ash and vapor to give color variation and a polite sheen but not so much ash that the decoration is obliterated.
Although I control processes, the woodkiln’s ash deposits and color flashes are always a combination of physics and serendipity. Drawings on the successful pieces seem effortless and familiar, yet as mysterious and surprising as a leaf or a feather.”