Ceramics/Pottery
Kimberly Allison, Room 316
@kallisonceramics
kallisonceramics.com
Even as a child, I’ve always had a tactile imagination that likes to freeze moments in time. I wonder what would it be like to wring water from a cloud like a sponge? To squeeze burned embers back together into a new form? To pluck a puddle from the ground and save its perfectly unique shape? This playful need to capture nature in unnatural ways is something I constantly explore and have fun with in my ceramics work.
My approach is minimalist but warm, a Nordic aesthetic influenced by my Swedish grandmother. I pare my concepts to their simplest elements, leaving enough to evoke a subtle feeling or memory.
I am also drawn to pottery’s ability to convey visual and tactile experiences simultaneously. I use both handbuilt and wheelthrown porcelain forms, hand-carvings, slips, and glazes to create or obscure texture, light, and shadow and explore the relationship between what we see and what we feel when we interact with ceramics.
Born in Southern Massachusetts, Kimberly Allison studied film production and graphic design at Boston University, graduating in 2005. She spent the first decade of her career as a designer in Boston. In 2012, she took a ceramics class as a date night with her husband and became enamored with clay. In late 2016, after immersing herself in classes and studio workshops, Kim decided to shift careers to pursue ceramics full time. Her backgrounds in film and in design contribute to her love of storytelling and her enthusiasm for the art of making by hand. Her works have been featured in juried fine craft shows around the country and most recently in her first solo exhibition at the Southern Vermont Arts Center. Kim currently works out of her Salem, MA home studio with her husband, cat, and reluctant “studio assistant” pup. She teaches classes and workshops at The Clay School in Lynn, Massachusetts.
This is Kim’s 11th year participating in Open Studios, and her 10th as part of the planning team.