Donna Causland
Duration: October-December 2021
Donna is a returning resident artist, and her goal is to immerse herself in a new direction in porcelain sculpture. Because of her past experience in New Harmony, she feels more prepared to utilize the unique environment and facilities to hone her artistic direction. She plans to complete at least 12 works and explore crystalline glazes on vertical sculpture. Her imagery will focus on wildlife of the American West and on the classic art of porcelain flower making.
quick facts
How many years have you been working as a clay artist? Since 1970.
What is your main clay body that you currently use? Usually low fire white-ware for large works and cone 6 porcelain for teapots.
What is the primary method you use for building your work? I mainly build with slabs to start, but I use every technique, including throwing and slip casting.
What is your favorite studio tool? My HANDS of course, but I never leave home without a Slabmat. (Not a fair question though, because I'm a tool junkie!)
Do you have any future clay wishes or dreams? To keep traveling the world, making teapots and sculpture. It doesn't get any better than that.
ARTIST STATEMENT
As curious humans, we are often seeking the extremes: just how far can I go? As a ceramic artist approaching my "Golden Jubilee" in clay, I have found myself attracted to what must be the two farthest extremes of clay. The first is the exquisite porcelain delicacies gleaned from my travels in Europe and China and what I consider the "Queen" of glazes, Crystallieri. The second extreme is Ancient Native Pottery of the Americas with a focus on practicing authentic techniques. This was inspired by my participation in the Southwest Kiln (SW Kiln) Conference for the past six years. SW Kiln is a unique gathering of archaeologists, anthropologists, ancient pottery enthusiasts, and a few potters, who come together yearly to freely share information, techniques, history, and results of our individual explorations of this long and vivid period of pottery tradition. What started as a "hobby" from my normal clay work has now developed into a serious passion.
For me, the thrill of these studies is connecting the common thread of the lives of potters across time and continents to my contemporary experience as a maker of clay objects. It is my desire to reconcile these two extremes into a coherent form that expresses the culmination of my studies and experiences in clay.
BIOGRAPHY
BORN: Cleveland, Ohio | USA
Donna Causland is a porcelain artist living in Silverthorne, Colorado, with her rancher/architect husband. She is inspired by the beauty of her surroundings and the history of this land and its inhabitants. Donna graduated from the College of Design, Architecture and Art at University of Cincinnati and completed post baccalaureate studies at Indiana University.
Donna was born with wanderlust and the need to travel and explore. She brings her findings and experiences back to her studio where they manifest in her work. Included in these experiences are three residencies in Jingdezhen, China, and two at New Harmony Clay Project in Indiana. Six trips to Europe, five journeys to Mexico, and travels through forty-five of the great American States have cultivated her ceramic knowledge that she has gathered from studios, workshops, conferences, and other clay artists.
For the past twenty-two years, Donna has shown her work and participated in the Vail Farmer's Market & Art Show, Minturn Farmer’s Market, Dillon Farmer’s Market, and the Aspen Saturday Market every weekend from mid-June to October. Her work has been exhibited at New Harmony Gallery of Contemporary Art and Mason-Nordgauer Fine Arts Gallery in New Harmony, Indiana, and is available year-round at the Landings Mercantile in Beaver Creek, Colorado.