Yolande Clark

Effigy Exhibition
Aug. 13 - Sept. 5
 

Artist's CV

 

 

 

Yolande Clark, Bear Buddha

BEAR BUDDHA

porcelain with shino glaze
5 day bourrigama fired
8.25 in. tall x 5.5 in. wide at bottom
$170

 

Yolande Clark, Mother Fire

MOTHER FIRE

porcelain with natural ash glaze
5 day bourrigama fired
6 in. tall x 5 in. wide at bottom
SOLD

 

Yolande Clark, Green Stem Buddha

GREEN STEM BUDDHA

porcelain with shino glaze
5 day bourrigama fired
9.75 in. tall x 5 in. wide at bottom
$200


Yolande Clark, Blade of Grass Buddha

BLADE OF GRASS BUDDHA

porcelain with shino glaze
5 day bourrigama fired
4.75 in. tall x 4 in. wide at bottom
SOLD

 


Yolande Clark, Cloud Buddha

CLOUD BUDDHA

porcelain with shino glaze
5 day bourrigama fired
7.5 in. tall x 5.5 in. wide at bottom
$130

 

Yolande Clark, Adobe Buddha

ADOBE BUDDHA

porcelain with shino glaze
5 day bourrigama fired
6.75 in. tall x 5.5 in. wide at bottom
SOLD

 

 

 

Yolande Clark, Little Jewel

LITTLE JEWEL

porcelain with shino glaze
5 day bourrigama fired
4.25 in. tall x 3.5 in. wide at bottom
SOLD

Click below to read Kate Wallace's article "Extreme Potters" featuring Lee and Yolande, from the March 20, 2010 issue of the Telegraph Journal "Salon"

Extreme Potters

 


 

 

VASE

porcelain with shino and natural ash glaze
5 day bourrigama fired
7.5 in. tall x 7.75 in. wide at bottom
SOLD

You can learn more about Yolande and Lee by following their blog, please click below:

Lee and Yolande Clark's blog 

ARTIST STATEMENT:

My functional and sculptural work is inspired by the buddha, traditional Japanese tea ceremony, the history of yakishime (unglazed) tea-ware from the Shigaraki and Eichizen regions of Japan, and the universally sacred and profane rituals of living that make up our everyday existence.  I strive to be fully present during the making and firing of my works.  I see my pieces not only as beautiful and useful objects, but simultaneously as messengers of contemplative energy.  I fire without the use of cones or pyrometers, choosing instead to gauge the state and stages of the firing through sensory indications, and intuition.  There is an ineffable relationship that develops between a ceramic artist and her kiln.  With the absence of technological gadgetry, I am able to fully experience each firing as ritual, journey, and meditative process. 

I only ever use sustainably harvested wood or repurposed scrap wood for firing.  Unlike gas or electric firing, woodfiring involves little embodied energy, technology or processing, and is based around a renewable resource.  Tamarack, my fuel of choice, has few industrial or domestic applications, and is considered to be a "scrap" wood, but is perfect for woodfiring.  Because my work is unglazed, or minimally glazed with a toxin-free shino, I am able to avoid exposing myself and others to dangerous chemicals.  My ceramics are planet-friendly, and safe for use by everyone both ceremonially and day-to-day.  Each piece is truly one-of-a kind.

Yolande Clark, 2009


 

 

 

Yolande Clark, Green Flood Buddha

GREEN FLOOD BUDDHA

porcelain with shino glaze
5 day bourrigama fired
6.25 in. tall x 4.5 in. wide at bottom
$160

 

 


 

Yolande Clark lives in a tiny straw bale solar-powered cottage in the backwoods of New Brunswick, with her husband, fellow ceramic artist Lee Horus Clark and their young son, Horus.  Yolande studied Fine Arts at UBC and recently completed a 3 year apprenticeship in woodfiring.  Using local clay, stoneware and porcelain, she throws and hand-builds functional and sculptural forms on her kick-wheel.  It takes several weeks or months to make enough work to fill their kilns and to cut, split and pile the many cords of sustainably harvested wood that is burned.  The work is then fired in either their 27-foot long "Little River Anagama", or a newly built (October 2009) "Bourrigama", a Bourry-Box type kiln.  Lee and Yolande design and build their kilns by hand, brick by brick.  

Yolande fires her work for extended time periods, usually 5 days in the Bourrigama, and up to 12 days in the Anagama.  It takes several days to pack the kiln, and most of the work is loaded into the kiln as bare clay, although in some cases, a simple shino glaze is applied.  Her focus as an artist however, is on natural ash glaze.  To achieve this, the kiln is stoked every 3-5 minutes for the entire duration of the 10 day or 4 day firing--24 hours a day.  With every stoke, the flames rush through the kiln carrying the ash from the wood that is burned.  The ash lands on the pieces of pottery, and when the kiln reaches 1300 degrees Celsius, the wood-ash melts to create an entirely natural glaze, colour and texture.

Yolande has participated in several group and 2 person shows, and is looking forward to a 2-person show with her husband Lee Horus Clark at Gallery 78 in July 2010 entitled "One Hundred Figures and the Buddha".  One of her firebox figures resides in the permanent collection at the Burlington Art Centre, Ontario.  Her work is represented by Handworks Gallery in Saint John, New Brunswick, Distill Gallery in Toronto, the Canadian Guild of Craft Gallery in Montreal, and Jonathon Bancroft-Snell Gallery in London, Ontario.  Yolande’s paper and lecture proposal entitled "Intuitive Fire" was selected for the First International Woodfire Conference to be held in September 2010, in Brollin, Germany.