Artist Statement
Potter/Folklorist
Kelly Averill Savino
Rooted in Tradition with Kelly Averill Savino
Artist’s Statement
As a folklorist, I documented cultural traditions that move across time and distance, evolving to fit new lives and needs, even while they keep alive the seeds of their origin.
As a potter and artist, I am conscious of the same phenomenon. Whether it’s a response to ancient Asian ceramics, or admiration for the work of a contemporary ceramic artist, the work I make is changed by my own ideas, the way I fire and the clay I use. Historically inspired work “remade” by my hands will evolve into something more personal.
Cultured and fermented foods complete the metaphor, with recipes and methods passing across time and distance, evolving by region and generation.
Ancient vessels that held these foods are artifacts of fermentation before refrigeration and preservatives. Amphorae for fish sauce and wines, kimchee pots and soy bottles have been used for millennia. Salt glazed crocks and jugs for ales, buttermilk, or cheese have spanned centuries.
Human culture is like the sourdough bread starter I have nourished and fed for years. Though my wet lump of starter originated in a faraway place, the local wild yeasts in my Ohio kitchen, my methods of baking, and the grain I grind to feed it have turned it into something uniquely my own.
My artwork, functional and rooted in tradition, is as sustaining to me as bread, cheese and wine. My hope is that it will find a useful place in the lives of others, as well.
Kelly Averill Savino loves the link between design and purpose, and is always looking for common ground in pots historically used to store, preserve and prepare food. She combines a background in folklore and cultural anthropology with her passions as a studio potter, reinventing ancient forms to suit her contemporary culture, purpose and aesthetic. The more specific the purpose of a pot (such as a vinegar or kombucha fermenter, a yogurt or kefir pot, sourdough crock or baking cloche) the more trial and error has to go into perfecting functional design.
In this two day workshop, Kelly will present slides of pots made for storing and pouring, fermenting and culturing, cooking and serving. In demonstrations, parts thrown on the wheel for later assembly will serve as “talking points” for decisions we make about rims and profiles, proportion, and a body-friendly approach to throwing. Later, those parts will be assembled, and observations shared about planning and design, attachments and surface decoration.
Handbuilt projects will include textured slab constructions with darts, and a large covered dish made with extrusions. Participants will get a chance to get their hands in clay, as well, with some small handbuilt projects we can do as a group.
They will have an opportunity to make for themselves the three tools Kelly finds indispensable, and are welcome to bring pots for critique, or ask for targeted help with specific “stumbling blocks” in throwing, handbuilding or design.
RESUME: Kelly Averill Savino
Toledo, OH
Education:
Master of Fine Arts in Ceramics, Eastern Michigan University, Ypsilanti MI, 2008. Thesis show: CULTURE: Historically inspired, functional pots for fermented, cultured and yeasted foods.
Individualized Master of Arts in Folklore, Anthropology and Fine Arts, University of Oregon, 1988. Graduate courses in photography, documentation, ethnicity, culture, and ceramics. Thesis:
Identity and worldview in the celebrations of occupational culture: Rodeos, Tractor Pulls and Timber carnivals in small Pacific Northwest traditional communities. Went on to work as a public sector
folklorist, documenting Carolina moonshiners, coonhunters, granny midwives, AME gospel traditions, Maryland and Virginia Amish farmers, oystermen, crabbers, boat builders and and folk artists.
Bachelor of Arts, The Ohio State University, 1984. English major/French minor. 1984. Ceramics club, French Study Tour, extensive publications in Creative Writing.
Teaching Experience:
Winter 2009-present: Adjunct Instructor, Ceramics and 3D Design Courses: Owens Community College.
2002-Present: Instructor, Toledo Potter's Guild. Toledo, Ohio. Beginning and advanced students, throwing, handbuilding, extrusion, design and surface decorations. Guild positions include juried active
member, web manager and education committee.
Winter 2008: Instructor, Art 101, Studio Arts for Non Majors, Eastern Michigan University, Ypsilanti, Michigan.
2000 to Present: Private instruction in my own studio. Whistle, rattle, and altar making workshops for groups, teabowl tradition, women's anthropological pottery, and hands-on workshops in slip decoration
and mixing and firing stable ^6 glazes.
Member: Swan Creek Potters
Moderator and list owner: Potterbarter, a 3000 member yahoo group for the exchange of ceramic supplies and equipment.
Publications:
Columnist, Clay Times Magazine; "Around The Firebox". Individual articles available upon request.
Feature article, Ceramics Monthly
Image of work: Gargoyle Whistle featured in From Mud to Music, Barry Hall.
List of literary and freelance commercial publications available upon request
Shows and Awards
Faculty Exhibition, Walter E. Terhune Gallery, Center for Fine and Performng Arts, Owens College, Oregon Ohio
Toledo Potters Guild Exhibition, Juror Charlie Cummings, Center for Visual Arts, Toledo Museum of Art, September 2007
Third Place exhibitor's award, Sylvania Festival of the Arts. Summer 2007
Excellence in Ceramics, Salon de Refuse show, Parkwood Gallery, Toledo, Ohio 2005
Second Place, Art and the Environment, April 2004, St. Clair County Community College, Port Huron, Michigan.
Honorable mention, Kiln God Nationals, Chicken Farm Art Center, San Angelo, TX.
Monroe Michigan's Jazz Festival Art Fair, Summer 2004 and 2008
One woman show, Seagate Center Gallery, Toledo, Ohio, 2001.
Annual shows and sales at the Toledo Botanical Garden through the Toledo Potter's Guild
Academic Courses in Ceramics and Related Arts:
Summer 2004: Glass Slumping and Fusing, Toledo Museum of Art.
Fall 2004: Ekphrastic Writing, Joel Lipman, Toledo Museum of Art.
Winter 2002: Lost Wax casting and metal fabrication, Hans Ruebel, Toledo
Museum of Art.
Fall 2002: Fundamentals of 2D Design, Earl Van der Zee Gordon, University
of Toledo.
Spring 2001: Writing on Clay, Independent Study, Joel Lipman, University
of Toledo
Fall 2001: Ceramics, Independent Study, Rex Fogt, University of Toledo
1988: Graduate courses in Ceramics, George Kokis, University of Oregon
1979-84, Ceramics club, Ohio State University
October, 2000: Grant writing, certificate course.
Non-academic Ceramics Instruction, Workshops and Conferences:
October, 2008: Cynthia Bringle, Masters Class, Arrowmont School for the
Arts
August 2007: 577 Foundation, Nick Joerling workshop.
February 2005: Lansing Potter's Guild. Tony and Sheila Clennell: Throwing
large forms and assembling thrown parts.
Summer 2004: Toledo Potter's Guild, Robert Piepenberg. Wheel thrown forms
and raku techniques.
Summer 2004: Appalachian Center for Crafts, Smithville, Tenn.: Frank and
Polly Ann Martin. Wheel thrown and assembled pottery;
working from thrown parts. Surface treatment and glazing.
Summer 2003: Appalachian Center for Crafts, Smithville, Tenn.: Lana Wilson
and Leah Leitson, handbuilt and thrown porcelain forms.
Summer 2002: Appalachian Center for Crafts, Smithville, Tenn.: David
Hendley and Mark Issenberg. Wheel techniques, extrusions,
slips and soda firing.
March 2001: Functional Ceramics, Wooster, OH. Julia Galloway, Kevin Crowe
and Mark Bell presenting.
Winter 2001: Westerville, OH : Jack Troy, two day workshop on wheel and
woodfiring techniques.
Summer 2001: Toledo Potter's Guild, Don Davis workshop. Wheel thrown and
assembled pottery.
Summer 2001: Appalachian Center for Crafts, Smithville, Tenn. : Vince
Pitelka's "Ancient Clay“ a week long, in residence course in
ancient pottery, handbuilding, terra sigillata, and making blackened ware
by smothered pitfiring.
Summer 2000: Appalachian Center for Crafts, Smithville, Tenn.: Mel
Jacobsen and Dannon Rhudy, week long in-residence intensive
throwing workshop. Production, double-walled forms, hand-thrown molds
with textured slabwork finished on the wheel.
Summer 1998: Glaze formulation workshop, Julie Beutler, 577 Foundation,
Perrysburg, OH.
NCECA Conferences: Yearly, 2003-Present