GLENDA KLEINSASSER
Black Vase
Vase1
Raku Pot
Blue Pot
Earthen Vase
Green Vase
Multi Colored Bowl
Artist Statement:
My first pottery class was 35 years ago in an adult education program in State College, Pennsylvania. I loved pottery from the moment I put my hands around that first lump of clay.
After quitting pottery for twenty years to raise my children, I started back six years ago, and find that now I want to do it all. That means handbuilding, extruding, mold pouring, slump/hump molding, tilemaking, wheel throwing, combining forms; using earthenware, paperclay, porcelain, raku and stoneware; making functional and non-functional pieces; either smooth or textural; into artistic or sculptural work; by firing low termperture salt, raku, electric oxidation, gas reduction, soda/salt, wood and crystalline. Guess I'm making up for lost time and loving every minute.
I've attended many workshops and classes given by a variety of potters in Colorado and other parts of the United States. My influences have been classic pottery forms in museums and galleries but my love of bottles and porcelain came from Bill Smith, an instructor at the College of St. Benedict's in Minnesota, during the early 1970's.
Currently, my emphasis is on crystalline fired porcelain bottles and raku fired vases thrown on the potters wheel.