Kent potter’s body of work bridges disciplines, cultures

KENT — Every 10 minutes, for 40 hours straight, they feed the fiery beast. 

Once a year, in alternating shifts, experienced potters, apprentices and friends from the Northwest Corner come together to feed wood into the blazing belly of the sprawling brickanagama at Joy Brown’s South Kent pottery studio. The Japanese-style kiln contains about 200 sculptural and figural pieces of all shapes and sizes painstakingly crafted by Brown and other potters who are participating in the annual Clay Way Studio Tour over Columbus Day weekend.

It took the close-knit group of artists several weeks just to fill the 30-foot wood firing tunnel kiln, built by Brown, with their various clay vessels, figures and forms. Then, after tending to the roaring fire for eight days, the smoldering pottery, which has been kissed by ash, is left to slowly cool for another eight days. It is then that the potters learn what the “kiln gods” produced. 

“Everybody comes back and we have a big clay unloading,” Brown revealed. “It’s a very special day when we open the door, and discover what happened inside. It’s an intense time of discovery, revelation, celebration and learning for all involved.”

Brown, a globally recognized clay artist famous for her plump, human-like figures, has been participating in the Clay Way Studio Tour since its inception three years ago. Her kiln is one of several in the area that has been lit over the past several weeks in preparation for the three-day event, Oct. 6 - 8, which gives visitors a chance to take a self-guided tour to meet with 14 potters and learn about their craft.

While she revels in the camaraderie among the area’s clay artists, Brown’s 40-year artistic journey has taken her, literally, to both ends of the earth. Although she was born in the United States, Brown, the daughter of a medical missionary, was raised in Japan and attended school there before returning to the U.S. to pursue a college degree in art. She could not resist the call of the clay and the kiln, and eventually returned to Japan to apprentice with, among others, a 13th-generation Tamba-style potter.

Brown says her art reflects the influence of her childhood in Japan and of the rigorous discipline of her apprenticeship in traditional Japanese wood-fired ceramics. Wood firing and working with clay became a way of life, defining an aesthetic that to this day guides her work and life. 

Brown’s artistic style pays homage to what the Japanese refer to as shibui, or subtle, unobtrusive beauty. 

“My figures are kind of like how I’d like to be,” reflected Brown, who is creating new pieces for a pottery show in Japan later this year. “More calm, centered, grounded and aware — more present in the very moment.”

 In 1998 she founded the Still Mountain Center, a not-for-profit entity with a mission “to support and celebrate artistic exchange among peoples locally and globally by providing opportunities for cross-cultural appreciation, collaboration and innovation in the arts.”

“For 40 years, my work with clay has challenged and nurtured me, enriched and transformed my life,” Brown said. Early in her career, she focused on functional vessels at the Webutuck Craft Village in Wingdale, N.Y. But slowly, her style took on a more whimsical essence. She produced hand puppets with clay heads and hands, which evolved into animal forms, which “slowly became more human.” 

Those early works, she added, “were the ancestors to what I make now.”

“The changes have come out of my relationship to the materials and process: the clay, kiln, firing and my changing intentions. For the past 20 years I have also been working in bronze, most recently in China, where I’ve made larger-than-life figures for public spaces.” 

For Brown, her large-scale exhibits in big cities, which fostered interaction with the public, enhanced her artistic journey.  

“They cracked open a whole new territory for me.” 

She came to view her larger-than-life figures as “big Mother Earth spirits — sitting, holding ground, bringing peace and calm, with all this busy life going on around them.”  

Brown’s work is currently on display in the Kent village center. She is represented by the Morrison Gallery. To learn more about Clay Way, go to www.clayway.net.