When I was asked to write the "Meet" post for this week, the first artist who came to mind was my sister Linden Gray, who I had just returned from visiting on Cape Cod over fourth of July weekend. Linden has been throwing pottery since she was fifteen and has her Bachelors in Fine Arts from the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University.

For the past year Linden has been the ceramic studio manager at the Truro Center for the Arts at Castle Hill, which is an artist work center on Cape Cod offering a variety of workshops taught by artists from around the world. Linden teaches workshops on throwing, hand building, and glazing for both adults and children and has been very involved in building Castle Hill's new wood kiln.

The wood kiln with Linden's dog Myles

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Linden's work focuses on surface alteration and creating unusual textures, which she does using heavy slip that resembles whipped cream. Adding the slip to the outside of the pots with tools causes the shape to collapse into a flower-like shape before it is opened back up and made round again. This process allows for layers of texture to develop that could not be created if the pot were to stay round while being thrown. Linden developed this method of surface alteration for her senior show at Alfred and has continued investigating new throwing techniques.

Here are a few of her tea cups

I am drawn to Linden's work because it is both beautiful and functional in a way that is artfully simple and yet somehow still seems inventive. I think this is in part because Linden is fascinated with how societies make and use objects, as well as the nature of clay as a material. I was particularly struck by Linden's senior show at Alfred. She set her roughly textured white dishes on antique mahogany tables, creating a scene that was both elegant and surprising.

Here's one of the jars from that show

Posted by Guest on July 16, 2009 in Meet