"I think she is not only a superb technician, but she has an uncanny, wonderful ability to create life in the ceramic arts....This artist's work is very emotion-based, and that's why it's significant. She doesn't create ceramic figurines. She creates very live images." – Rudy Turk, Professor emeritus and former Director of the Arizona State University Nelson Fine Art Museum, Phoenix Home and Garden, February 2006
Artist’s Statement
People
are infinitely interesting to me, both physically and psychologically.
The human body is an inherently powerful artistic image, given our
direct and intimate identification with the form. The way the body
is sculpted, the gesture, the surface, the anatomy, strongly communicates
information about the personality and character of the subject. The
gesture of the sculpture is a major means of communication for me.
I developed an early awareness of gesture and movement through my
ballet training as a child. As an adult, my practice of yoga inspires
the use of symbolic gesture
My work is primarily autobiographical,
focusing on relationships in my life. The pieces deal with concerns
of family, parenthood, friendship and personal growth. The imagery
derives from personal experience yet illustrates universal themes.
The figures are rarely singular. I usually pair them with an animal
or an object. In this way they become narratives and metaphorical
statements. I rely on realistic modeling of the anatomy of the figure
only as areas of emphasis. I let the slabs of smooth white clay bend
and crack naturally as I manipulate them, pushing out volumes from
the backside of the slab and overlapping layers to build the figures
from the bottom up. I selectively blend the seams of the slabs, revealing
the building process and creating a three-dimensional line drawing
made up of edges in the form. The surfaces are either stained, left
unglazed or layered with washes of color, all of which preserve the
clay surface texture rather than disguising it
I am seduced by my
chosen medium of clay, but what really drives my art is a desire
to communicate. I am fascinated by the challenge of transforming
an abstract idea into a concrete visual image that touches people
emotionally.
Pictured Above Left: "Mother, Daughter, Artist, Wife (self portrait)" 1997. Stoneware with underglaze and china tea set
19”X20”X17”.
Artist's Biography
Jane Kelsey-Mapel is a Phoenix based studio artist. She exhibits her
figurative ceramic sculpture nationally and was represented by Victoria
Boyce Gallery in Scottsdale, Arizona. Her work has been purchased
for numerous public and private collections including the Kamm Teapot
Foundation of Sparta, North Carolina and the City of Phoenix Collection
of Contemporary Arizona Ceramic Art at the Phoenix Airport Museum.
The Chinese publication, Sculpture Magazine, and the U.S.
publications,
Ceramics Monthly and Phoenix Home and Garden have
featured Jane's sculpture. Her work was also published in the book The
Sculpture Reference Illustrated.
An Arizona native, Jane grew up in Tempe, Arizona where she completed
a Bachelor of Arts degree in art at Arizona State University. She
earned a Master of Fine Arts degree in ceramics at the University
of North Texas. A dedicated art educator, Jane has taught all ages
from seniors and young adults in the community college to children
in the Youth Academy of Scottsdale Artists' School. She has taught
both full time and part time at universities and colleges in Texas
and Arizona over the past thirty years. She is currently teaching
ceramics at Glendale Community College in Glendale, Arizona.
As well as teaching and her studio work, Jane has created award winning
public art. Through her work as an Artist in Residence at local schools,
she has created large scale tile mural installations. One of these
projects, the Madison Simis Reading Garden in Phoenix, was awarded
the prestigious Crescordia Award from the Valley Forward Association.
These projects were funded by grants from the Arizona Commission
on the Arts, the Phoenix Office of Arts and Culture and school Parent
Teacher Organizations.
In 2007, Jane worked with college students to construct a twelve
foot tall abstract horse sculpture inspired by one of her porcelain
horses. The tiled concrete and steel sculpture is permanently installed
on the plaza of the Center for Performing Arts at Paradise Valley
Community College (PVCC) in Phoenix, Arizona. Grants from the Maricopa
Community College District and the Arizona Community Foundation funded
this project along with support from PVCC.
Pictured Above Right: Jane Kelsey-Mapel shown above with "Secure in the Wilderness."
Classes and Lectures
One of my favorite ways of teaching is to present workshops on my
ceramic sculpture techniques. I have given many hands-on and demonstration
workshops at art centers, universities, colleges, high schools and
private art schools in Arizona, California, Texas and Washington.
At the 2009 National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts annual
conference in Phoenix, I presented a slide lecture entitled "Using
Concrete Over Rigid Foam as a Sculptural Base for Mosaics."
Please contact me if you are interested in inviting me to present
a workshop and I will send you further information.
Pictured at Left: "Bathing Beauty Cups" 2008. Porcelaineous stoneware with underglaze and glaze.
Upcoming Workshop at Scottsdale Artists' School
I will be teaching a three-day hands-on workshop Hollow Built Figure Sculpture and Kiln Fired Surfaces at Scottsdale Artists' School Friday and Saturday, December 6 and 7 and Saturday, December 14, 2013. This is an all levels adult class that meets 9 a.m.–4 p.m. Tuition is $395 with a $35 glazing/firing fee. Note that the school offers a limited number of tuition scholarships.
Course Description: During the first two days of the workshop, students will work in water-based clay using traditional hollow building techniques. They will roll out and assemble slabs of clay to create small-scale heads and torsos that will be dried and bisque fired in the kiln by the following Saturday class. No models will be used. Students will be encouraged to work loosely, focusing on responding expressively to the clay as it takes on form and gesture. Demonstrations and individual critiques will take place throughout the workshop and Jane will show slides of a wide variety of fired clay figurative sculpture. On Saturday, Dec. 14, Jane will discuss different types of fired surfaces, their application and firing processes. Students will then apply under-glazes as translucent washes and stains to their pieces. These surfaces will become permanent when they are glaze fired the week after the workshop. Students may pick up their finished pieces from the school or arrange to have them shipped.
Contact:
Scottsdale Artists' School
3720 North Marshall Way
Scottsdale, Arizona 85251
Phone: (480) 990-1422
Toll Free: (800) 333-5707
Website: www.ScottsdaleArtSchool.org
Email: Info@ScottsdaleArtSchool.org
Pictured Above: “The Beauty Lamenting the Fading of Flowers” 2012. Porcelaneous stoneware with underglaze and glaze (detail from collaborative work with Becky Frehse)
Collaborative Work
Collaboration with Becky Frehse Continues
After a successful yearlong collaboration with Tacoma artist Becky Frehse and debut of our work in Seattle and Tacoma galleries, we are preparing to exhibit our work in Arizona. The show will open at the Phoenix Airport Museum in April and run through September 2013.
Becky and I were college roommates and have remained close friends every since then. She is a wonderful painter and has been working in relief with paint, collage and found objects. We were both looking for something new and fresh in our art making process. We thought, “sometimes two heads are better and more fun than one.” So why not put our heads together and see what happens? The result was a collection of mixed media pieces exploring themes of the collaboration process itself and the idea of reinventing yourself at various stages of life.
Read more about our collaboration on our blog at www.janeandbecky.wordpress.com and on our website www.reconfiguredart.com.
Pictured Above Right – Top: Becky Frehse and I working in her Tacoma studio, July 2011. Bottom: “Turning the Tables”, stoneware with underglazes, acrylic on board with violin neck, wire cage, wire and bell, 20"x22"x6" (our first finished piece).
Links
Scottsdale Artists School
3720 North Marshall Way
Scottsdale, AZ 85251
(480) 990-1422
www.scottsdaleartschool.org
Ceramic Arts Daily (an online magazine): www.ceramicartsdaily.org/feature/featuredetail/2007-11/112607CreatingRelationshipsStory-TellingSculptures.aspx
Arizona State University Herberger College of Art, Alumni to Watch: herbergercollege.asu.edu/alumni/toWatch/kelsey-mapel.php
Jane's Blog with Becky Frehse, documenting their collaboration: www.janeandbecky.wordpress.com
Collaborative work with Becky Frehse: www.reconfiguredart.com
Becky's web site: www.beckyfrehse.com
Mesa Contemporary Art Museum at the Mesa Art Center: www.mesaartscenter.com/art-exhibitions-contemporary-art-gallery.html
Website of over 500 figurative artists that features Jane's work: www.figurativeartist.org