Today we’d like to introduce you to Melanie Shaw.
Melanie is a contemporary ceramic and sculpture artist specializing in earthenware processes. She had been long nestled in the entertainment field for many years in New York City and working as a part-time artist when life and circumstances took a turn, prompting a move south to Texas in 2014. She is owner/operator of Art Off Center in Taylor, TX, teaching ceramics to adults and children.
Melanie studied painting, drawing and a variety of mixed media arts throughout her life via workshops and collegiate classes and was completely inspired by ceramics as her main artistic medium while living in New York City. She completed classes at The Educational Alliance Art School and progressed to classes at Greenwich House Pottery, and wrapped up her BA in Studio Arts (Ceramics concentration) and Digital Media at Hunter College during her time in New York City.
Her father passed away in late 2015 and she has been reminiscing about small inspirational moments spent with him. Her hope is that her themes bring out childlike curiosity and elicit that sense of wonder that is sometimes lost over time in our adult years.
We’d love to hear more about your art. What do you do you do and why and what do you hope others will take away from your work?
Melanie’s themes develop along the leitmotif of line, form and decoration of the piece or work and are fashioned into a visual statement after careful deliberation. The use of mid fire stoneware allows her opportunity to explore detail and refining of decoration while alternately using low fire earthenware to integrate the beautiful color of the clay within the idea of the subject. She utilizes several oxidation glaze firings for high fireworks that include slip trailing, Mishima, image transfer, decals, overglazes and china painting embellishment. These processes are sometimes distilled down to a single firing when working in low fire clay. Additionally, she works with a variety of mixed media dependent on the project or concept of the piece(s).
She produces utilitarian wares, mugs, plates, bowls, etc., with decorated surfaces and these further refine her sculptural processes, within the contemplation and completion of these wares. They afford her the ability to work out coloration and decoration on a smaller scale while enjoying the process of completing multiples.
Her work is extremely embellished with layered decoration, patterned flowers, mid-century modern motifs and then she also completes wares with monsters and space themes, that remind her of her father and her young grandsons. These themes all illustrate a time for her when inspiration and exploration were new and unchartered territory.
Have things improved for artists? What should cities do to empower artists?
Ceramic artists have the good fortune to benefit due to the recent popularity of handmade pottery due to websites like Etsy and Instagram. Pottery and ceramic sculpture lend itself to visual mediums and these sites are full of local and international ceramic artists.
On the other hand, it does make the field more crowded and ceramic artists must look for a niche in order to stand out. In the wake of Harvey, one of Ms. Shaw’s favorite local Houston galleries that specialized in ceramics closed, but the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft has started to fill in some of those gaps. It would be nice to have a few more Houston galleries include ceramics as part of their regular rotation in addition to paintings and photography.
In general, if the local colleges and universities integrate ceramics and pottery into their fine arts departments, it might help to boost ceramics into the localized art scenes. Ceramics has marched well past being considered a craft in most of the major art markets in larger cities in the past 10+ years.
Do you have any events or exhibitions coming up? Where would one go to see more of your work? How can people support you and your artwork?
Melanie is owner/operator of Art Off Center in Taylor, TX, which she purchased last fall from a fellow ceramic artist, www.artoffcenter.com.
Her work is represented online at www.melanieshawceramics.com and at various Texas locations throughout the year for exhibitions and local arts and craft markets around Houston, Bastrop, Austin and Dallas. In addition, artists can learn her slip decorating and stencil collage techniques from her “Collage on Clay” class, that she teaches throughout the year at various locations in Texas.
Contact Info:
- Address: 112 Kimo Ct.
Bastrop, TX 78602 - Website: www.melanieshawceramics.com
- Phone: 512-666-9003
- Email: mel340@icloud.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/melanieshawceramics/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/melanieshawceramics/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/mellemel340
- Other: www.artoffcenter.com
Image Credit:
Melanie Shaw, Photographer, 2016-2018.
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