Susan Barrett started out in college as a chemistry major. She took pottery as an elective: essentially a blow-off class. But something happened when she got her hands into the clay, saw the chemical reaction that takes place in the kiln. Ceramics I led to Ceramics II and III. “I was bitten by the clay bug,” she says. Soon the scientist was an artist. Now the Hendersonville potter conducts her own experiments with surface texture, mixes her own blends of clay and lets the caprice of the fire and oxygen in the kiln work its magic on the wheel-thrown vessels she creates.
A native of New Jersey, Barrett went to school in Arizona and the influence of the earth tones of the desert and Native American aesthetic are evident in her work. “I’ve always been drawn to pre-Columbian, South American and Native American design in ceramics,” she says. But while traditional Native American pottery was almost strictly functional, Barrett’s is solely sculptural and focused on the rounded, smooth form. She doesn’t use any glazes: the colors in her vessels all exist in nature. And her vessels don’t hold water, literally. By keeping it simple, Barrett is able to focus on the surface decoration, using materials, processes and techniques she’s drawn from a variety of traditions. While she incorporates elements of raku and there are similarities to what’s called a gas reduction process, Barrett has created an approach that’s completely her own.
All of her work starts out on the wheel. Barrett mixes her own iron-rich clay recipes from regional sources, from both South and North Carolina. After a piece is shaped, it’s burnished with stones and sprayed with what’s called terra sigillata, a fine clay slip the consistency of milk that makes the surface smooth and shiny (an approach developed in ancient Rome). The surface is so smooth that it almost looks like stone or marble.
After the sigillata is applied, the vessel is bisque-fired in an electric kiln. From there, Barrett applies a wax resist, the same method used in shibori, the Japanese art of textile dying. “Wax opens up a world of patterns,” says Barrett, from regulated graphic patterns such as vertical bands of color to free-form texture. Some pieces evoke ancient cave paintings or tribal designs while others are more disciplined and refined.
While using wax resist isn’t unique in ceramic design, it’s the combination of materials, techniques and processes that Barrett uses that makes her process unlike others. After she has applied the wax, the pieces are placed in a raku kiln filled with sawdust. The wax on the surface of the vessel melts away. She has a certain amount of control at this point of the process, but this is the point at which things become unpredictable. The clay responds to the singular combination of intense heat (1400°F), atmospheric conditions and the vessel’s position in the kiln. “I have to let the fire do what it’s going to do,” she says. In alchemy, this is the stage they call transmutation: when an object transforms from one substance into another.
Discovering the results after a firing is always a surprise and a delight. “What you’re looking at on the surface,” says Barrett “is the effect of the fire.” In a way the process is a partnership between the artist and the elements: a lot of planning and creativity, and a dash of fire magic.
Barrett’s work has been included in the prestigious Smithsonian Craftshow, a juried show and sale held annually in Washington since 1982. In 2012, she was a recipient of a North Carolina Arts Council Regional Artist Project grant and was honored by the Arts Council of Henderson County. Her work is in the permanent collections of Charlotte’s Mint Museum, the arts center of Rocky Mount and the City of Mesa, Arizona. A member of the Southern Highland Craft Guild, Barrett shows her work at the guild’s new gallery in Biltmore Village.
For more information visit www.susanbarrettstudios.com.