{"id":15891,"date":"2016-01-20T09:00:22","date_gmt":"2016-01-20T17:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spijue.wpengine.com\/news\/a-conversation-with-ceramics-professor-and-artist-jeremy-kane\/"},"modified":"2016-01-20T09:00:22","modified_gmt":"2016-01-20T17:00:22","slug":"a-conversation-with-ceramics-professor-and-artist-jeremy-kane","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/life\/a-conversation-with-ceramics-professor-and-artist-jeremy-kane\/","title":{"rendered":"A conversation with ceramics professor and artist Jeremy Kane"},"content":{"rendered":"

University of Alaska Associate Professor of Art and ceramics artist Jeremy Kane\u2019s current show at the Juneau-Douglas City Museum, \u201cSurface,\u201d is a departure from the work he has shown most recently in Juneau, but is in another way more in line with an important aspect of his influence as a ceramics teacher.<\/span><\/p>\n

The pieces in \u201cSurface\u201d were created in wood-fired kilns, one built with UAA and UAF colleagues and the other with UAS students, highlighting techniques that date back to the third and fourth centuries in Japan. Colors, and variations in surface texture, in the pieces are created by what he put in the kiln when they were being fired.<\/p>\n

Some of the pieces are made of porcelain; some of stoneware, or other types of materials. Rock salt he puts in the kiln as the pieces are firing gives some of them a pockmarked appearance; spruce ash, from the wood-fired kiln turns into greenish glaze on other pieces. He also used soda \u2014 essentially baking soda \u2014 spraying it into the kiln so it affects the pieces fired with it more like vapor, turning them gray.<\/p>\n

\u201cOriginally I was going to call it (the show) wood, salt and soda,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

For the most part, when he did apply glaze, it was one slightly golden glaze on the whole show, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I first started out to do that show, I was thinking about gold nuggets and Alaskana,\u201d he said. \u201cI took it to a different place, but I still wanted that feeling of a gold, luscious surface \u2014 a kind of shimmer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Those familiar with his usual work know it as retro-style white-ware with sticker-like decals, a kind of Americana art.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt allows me to make things that look like they might not be handmade,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s just kind of intriguing to make things that are just as high quality, but people want to know, did somebody make this?\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

THE BIRTH OF NOSTALGIA<\/p>\n

Kane grew up in Southern Ohio, first taking watercolor, drawing, and ceramics classes at the Springfield Museum of Art as a kid.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had a pretty cool (ceramics) teacher who was totally giving and allowed us to make things,\u201d he said. \u201cI kept getting inspired by one teacher after the next.\u201d<\/p>\n

Before he even went to high school, he\u2019d done ceramics for three years, and when he graduated, he knew he wanted to get back into it.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the time I wasn\u2019t thinking professionally. I just knew it was something I wanted to be good at,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

At college at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, he was studying business \u2014 and decided to switch to ceramics, getting a Bachelor of Fine Arts.<\/p>\n

It was when he was pursuing a Master of Fine Arts at Ohio University and was looking for a way to reflect his own voice that he evolved his style, which is influenced both by industrial design and a sense of nostalgia.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was always a fan of kind of kitsch America, gift shops and things, and getting my hands on small icons with icons of wherever we were,\u201d he said. \u201cYou can bring in all kinds of different references.\u201d<\/p>\n

He loves old cars and old antiques; he worked at a drug store and cleaned and fixed antiques as a collector, and found when he moved to Alaska, there was a different history. It was returning to Ohio in grad school that helped him discover that aspect of himself, he said.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s been an Alaska resident now for 22 years and has taught at UAS for 12.<\/p>\n

His music also feeds into his art. Kane plays banjo in the Great Alaska Bluegrass Band.<\/p>\n

The banjo, too, people think of as American \u2014 but it\u2019s derived from Africa.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe music that I like the most is derived from other places,\u201d he said. \u201cBut the way I play is stereotypically American\u2026 based off of rock and roll, and jazz and blues, and things like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

TEACHING<\/p>\n

Much of what he teaches in class relates not only to ceramics, but the rest of the world.<\/p>\n

\u201cI teach (students) about form, and function and how it pertains to everyday tasks \u2013 essentially how to be organized, and how to operate their time properly for them to pull off something successful. Ceramics is a timing game, and a drying game \u2014 it\u2019s a long process,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He, UAS students and UAA and UAF colleagues built the two kilns at UAS. One is something people call \u201ca coffin kiln,\u201d or a train kiln, about three feet wide, three feet tall, and 20 feet long.<\/p>\n

The other one is smaller, about 16 cubic feet inside. Most of the materials were donated by the community, he said. And then there\u2019s another brick contraption as well \u2014 this one specifically for pizzas, which students cook and eat together.<\/p>\n

Part of what he tries to create in his classes, and what ceramics lend themselves to, is a communal atmosphere, he said.<\/p>\n

Teaching has made him a better potter, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s the beauty of the pottery studio. Students learn from each other,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s not something that you hoard, it\u2019s something that you share\u2026. It\u2019s an all-inclusive team.\u201d<\/p>\n

Things go wrong, sometimes; maybe someone knocks over a pot you\u2019ve been working on for hours.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re really teaching a lot of communication skills and life skills,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s a small environment. People have to be able to get along.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kane will be giving a free lecture at the museum on Jan. 21 from 7 to 8:30 p.m. The pieces in the show are for sale.<\/p>\n

The exhibit is on display through Jan. 30.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Contact Martin at maryc.martin@capweek.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

University of Alaska Associate Professor of Art and ceramics artist Jeremy Kane\u2019s current show at the Juneau-Douglas City Museum, \u201cSurface,\u201d is a departure from the work he has shown most recently in Juneau, but is in another way more in line with an important aspect of his influence as a ceramics teacher. The pieces in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":15892,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":7,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[74],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-15891","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-life","tag-arts-and-culture"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15891","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15891"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15891\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15892"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15891"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15891"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15891"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=15891"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}