Bio | Artist's View | Process | Press |
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Artist Bio
Eva St. John took pottery at the University of California at Berkeley with Peter Voulkos and at the Oakland School of Arts and Crafts; afterward studying figurative sculpture at the National Academy of Design in New York with Bruno Lucchesi. She worked at the cooperative Clay Art Center in Port Chester before setting up her own studio in Morris CT. Deepening interest in the traditions of pottery led Eva to learn the sixteenth century Japanese technique of RAKU firing from a master in Uzes, France. There she encountered the myriad expressive effects of RAKU which she has used since in her pottery and wall sculptures. Eva has exhibited her work at the Hartford Atheneum and at one woman sculpture shows at both the Mattatuck Museum and The Kent Art Gallery. Her work has been selected for many juried shows including Spring 2005 at the Slater Museum in Norwich CT with juror Walter Kendra. Her work has been shown at numerous prestigious and pioneering galleries in the Northeast. She derives great satisfaction from the physical process of making her art, and has been especially pleased that other artists appreciate and have collected her work. Raku Wall Sculptures- the Artist's View Clay is one of the most ancient art forms as 5,000 year-old cooking vessels with finger-pinches and impressed rope-designs show us. It is still one of the most impressionable arts. A great attraction of working with clay for me is the ability to literally feel my art, an aesthetic of touch if you will, that allows me to directly translate my feeling to the piece. A clay piece has two major influences which I would call its heart and soul. The first is when I hand form the soft clay body expressing the shape I have in mind. The second emerges with the intricate surface texture of the glaze. However much I try to guide conditions during the firing and subsequent RAKU process, each piece emerges with a unique pattern and texture that is almost always unexpected. This randomness is what the Japanese prize so highly, and which I find always exciting. Each piece i create is handmade. Each is born of an alchemy of earth and fire -- idea and serendipity. Specially selected clays are wedged, then thrown on a wheel or kneaded out. After a pot or wall sculpture is formed, the piece cures slowly for several weeks, after which it is bisque fired. The surface glazes are then mixed and applied to cover or partially cover the piece before being submitted to the final firing. When the kiln reaches 1800 degrees Farenheit, each piece is drawn out blazing red and placed outside in shallow pits of oak shavings, pine needles and straw. These spring into flame and smoke, engulfing the piece. You can hear the musical pinging as the surface contracts faster than the clay interior -- all the while the carbon fingers of the smoke etching designs into the wizzening glaze. Only after the piece entirely cools and is washed free of the smoke of the flames does it fully reveal itself. |
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