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Artist Statement
Potter/Folklorist
Kelly
Averill Savino 
Rooted in Tradition
with Kelly Averill Savino
Exhibit: May 26th - June 27th
Hours: Wed -
Sun 10am-5pm
-Open to the public and
by appointment
Hands-on
Workshop: Sat., June 9am-5pm
Sun., June 9am-5pm
Reservations
required. $80.00 person
(materials and equipment
included)
Contact the studio to reserve
a space
Workshop:
Purpose meets design in historically
inspired pots meant for storage,
culturing and fermentation of
traditional foods. Thrown and altered
vessels, darted
textured-slab forms, and a large lidded pot made from
extrusions. Get your hands in clay as well with a handbuilt
project,
and make and keep three tools Kelly finds
indispensable.
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
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