Liz Lurie
Chittenango, New York
Biography
Liz Lurie has worked as a studio potter and teacher since 1991 in New York, Georgia, Massachusetts and Texas. She received a BA degree from Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, NY, in 1991, with concentrated study in dance and ceramics, and went on to participate in residencies at the Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts and Peter's Valley Craft School, building two wood kilns and a salt kiln along the way. From there she moved to Georgia and was studio production manager at the Wild Rabbit Pottery in Athens, Georgia, as well as running her own ceramic studio. In 1999 she became studio technician at the Worcester Center for Crafts in Massachusetts. From 2001-2009, Lurie moved to Dallas, Texas, where she helped build and design a large commissioned train-style wood kiln, maintained her own studio and taught classes at Southern Methodist University, Collin County College and Brookhaven College. In 2010, Liz Lurie resettled in upstate New York, where she is building her wood kiln, making pots and teaching in her own studio. Lurie gives lectures and workshops and exhibits and sells her work in galleries and stores throughout the United States.
Statement
I grew up in a household where there was a tremendous respect for things handmade. Furniture, books, paintings and pottery all helped to transform our house into a home. They radiated warmth, a life, a history, a beauty, and a strength which enriched our lives. They provided solace, were used in celebration, contemplation and sometimes broken in anger. When I go home to visit, they hold rich memories of thirty plus years of use. It is my hope that my pots provide for their users in a similar manner, and in so doing become an intimate part of the daily rhythm of life.
Often I reflect upon Czech novelist Milan Kundera's words. "There is a secret bond between slowness and memory, between speed and forgetting". I would like to think that I make work which takes time to discover. The dark nuanced surfaces are a quiet background to celebrate food and drink. Perhaps after each use one notices something different, a subtle gesture or mark that involves one to such a degree that for a moment the user is compelled to pause and slow down.
I am comforted by the place that pots occupy in the home. They reside in bookshelves and on desks, behind closed cupboards waiting to be chosen, and on countertops ready for use. Though pottery may stir in the recesses of our domestic clutter, it remains an integral part of why home can be such a grounding force in our lives.
All of my work is fired in a "train " style wood burning kiln, originally designed by John Neely. In 2003 Louise Rosenfield, myself, and four other women potters completed this kiln. We made some adjustments and adapted it to suit our needs (for more details on this kiln please see the Log Book article vol 30). A typical firing lasts from 34-40 hours being stoked around the clock and using nearly two cords of wood. At the end of each firing, after we have reached the desired temperature, we cool the kiln in a reduction atmosphere which accounts for the dark rich surfaces.
Even after ten years of un-stacking wood kilns, I find there are endless surprises. Opening the kiln door always gives me an adrenalin rush: successful pots that are too few in numbers, pots that need more developing, pots that were complete mistakes. I go back to the studio rejuvenated, and the cycle of making and firing starts again.
www.lizlurie.com
Biography
Liz Lurie has worked as a studio potter and teacher since 1991 in New York, Georgia, Massachusetts and Texas. She received a BA degree from Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, NY, in 1991, with concentrated study in dance and ceramics, and went on to participate in residencies at the Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts and Peter's Valley Craft School, building two wood kilns and a salt kiln along the way. From there she moved to Georgia and was studio production manager at the Wild Rabbit Pottery in Athens, Georgia, as well as running her own ceramic studio. In 1999 she became studio technician at the Worcester Center for Crafts in Massachusetts. From 2001-2009, Lurie moved to Dallas, Texas, where she helped build and design a large commissioned train-style wood kiln, maintained her own studio and taught classes at Southern Methodist University, Collin County College and Brookhaven College. In 2010, Liz Lurie resettled in upstate New York, where she is building her wood kiln, making pots and teaching in her own studio. Lurie gives lectures and workshops and exhibits and sells her work in galleries and stores throughout the United States.
Statement
I grew up in a household where there was a tremendous respect for things handmade. Furniture, books, paintings and pottery all helped to transform our house into a home. They radiated warmth, a life, a history, a beauty, and a strength which enriched our lives. They provided solace, were used in celebration, contemplation and sometimes broken in anger. When I go home to visit, they hold rich memories of thirty plus years of use. It is my hope that my pots provide for their users in a similar manner, and in so doing become an intimate part of the daily rhythm of life.
Often I reflect upon Czech novelist Milan Kundera's words. "There is a secret bond between slowness and memory, between speed and forgetting". I would like to think that I make work which takes time to discover. The dark nuanced surfaces are a quiet background to celebrate food and drink. Perhaps after each use one notices something different, a subtle gesture or mark that involves one to such a degree that for a moment the user is compelled to pause and slow down.
I am comforted by the place that pots occupy in the home. They reside in bookshelves and on desks, behind closed cupboards waiting to be chosen, and on countertops ready for use. Though pottery may stir in the recesses of our domestic clutter, it remains an integral part of why home can be such a grounding force in our lives.
All of my work is fired in a "train " style wood burning kiln, originally designed by John Neely. In 2003 Louise Rosenfield, myself, and four other women potters completed this kiln. We made some adjustments and adapted it to suit our needs (for more details on this kiln please see the Log Book article vol 30). A typical firing lasts from 34-40 hours being stoked around the clock and using nearly two cords of wood. At the end of each firing, after we have reached the desired temperature, we cool the kiln in a reduction atmosphere which accounts for the dark rich surfaces.
Even after ten years of un-stacking wood kilns, I find there are endless surprises. Opening the kiln door always gives me an adrenalin rush: successful pots that are too few in numbers, pots that need more developing, pots that were complete mistakes. I go back to the studio rejuvenated, and the cycle of making and firing starts again.
www.lizlurie.com
