Gail Kendall

Growing Up: Vertical Forms From Coil and Slab

Course Description
Elegant or funky, utilitarian or archetypal, pots in the round have a strong presence. In this workshop we will explore methods for building upward, making pots that hold air, or flowers, or rice. Hard slab, soft slab, and coil techniques will be presented. Students will be encouraged to bring source materials, to sketch ideas, to combine forms and techniques, and to think about the meaning behind what they make. This bisque-only workshop will include a glaze lecture and hand-out, discussions, and a final conversation about what we accomplished.

Artist's Biography
Gail Kendall, Hixson-Lied Professor of Art (UNL), was raised in a small lumber town on Green Bay in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Following her formal education at the University of Michigan (BSD) and Eastern Michigan University (MFA) she spent ten years working as an independent studio artist in St. Paul, Minnesota. In 1987 she accepted a position in the Department of Art & Art History at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Kendall's research interests include Mediterranean Basin earthenware ceramics, Christian and Islamic illuminated manuscripts, and English pottery and porcelain. She has been a resident artist at Spode Fine China Works in Stoke-On-Trent, England; the Archie Bray Foundation in Helena, Montana; and Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts in Newcastle, Maine. In 2003 Kendall was a participant in the Attingham Trust Summer School for the Study of Historic Houses in England. Her work has been shown in countless exhibitions in the U.S. and abroad and is the subject of articles in periodicals and books, including Ceramics: Art and Perception (Australia), Neue Keramik (Germany), and The Ceramic Surface by Matthias Ostermann. Most recently, her pottery is featured in Emmanuel Cooper's new book International Ceramics, published by A & C Black, London, 2008.

Artist's Statement
My ceramic works are influenced by various European and Middle Eastern pottery traditions from the 13th through the 18th centuries. Both 'peasant' and 'palace' pots inspire me. In the former it is the necessity for efficiency that determined a casual, perhaps careless, result that excites me. The drip of slip or glaze, the impurities in the clay, the globs of kiln-shelf refuse fused to the bottom -- these 'imperfections' often enliven the pot in ways that take my breath away. In the latter it is the elaborate rendering of form and surface that fuels my imagination. Early English slipware, Delftware, Maiolica, and Middle Eastern earthenwares are sources I refer to often.

My first experiments in earthenware took place at the University of Michigan where I was an undergraduate in the 1960’s. At that time, low-fire was the glaze technology one used if the desired result included saturated colors. I have stayed with terra cotta clays and earthenware technologies. Now I am attached to them as symbols of my heritage. My roots are European and definitely 'peasant'. I like to imagine a potter ancestor in Luxembourg or Wiltshire pouring slip on his earthenware charger, decorating it with the details of some local or family event, sprinkling on the lead oxide (oh lead….) and firing it in the most simple manner. He was an essential member of his community whereas I am more at home in the art world. But he and I are alike in our interest in the more mundane aspects of life: daily routines, and family celebrations. Like him, I hope the plates, platters, bowls, and other service pieces I make enhance those routines and rituals and add a touch of grace to the domestic arena.