Rising Stars: Meet Kelly Lynn Daniels

Today we’d like to introduce you to Kelly Lynn Daniels. 

Hi Kelly, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I’ve been an artist for as long as I can remember. There was barely a spare moment when I wasn’t working in a fancy coloring book or creating my own drawings. My love for all things clay began as a young child when I would spend hours sitting at my little table engrossed in creating things with playdough. One time, my mother brought me a tiny tea set from Mexico and after that, I attempted to create my own little plates and bowls out of mud in the backyard. Our Southern California soil had a lot of clay in it so I actually had some success. I “glazed” my dried pieces with white school glue. Fast forward to my first semester of junior college where I took a beginning ceramics class and completely fell in love with making things out of clay, especially throwing pottery on the wheel. I was instantly hooked on the immediacy of creating something so direct and tactile and then watching the work go through such a metamorphic, and often surprising, change in the heat of the kiln. 

My art path has been a long, circuitous one. I spent many years in and out of art classes as I balanced my time as a single mother with school and work. I moved from Southern to Northern California in the late ’90s and hooked up with another potter and started my own pottery business and did my local farmer’s market and craft show circuit. I had never finished the art degree that I really wanted so when my son graduated from high school and was applying for college, I decided I would finally make it happen. 

In 2011 I graduated with my Bachelor of Fine Arts in Ceramics from California State University, Chico. I spent the next couple of years traveling to craft schools and received a number of assistantships to work with a variety of successful ceramic artists. In 2013 I was accepted to University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth where I received my Masters of Fine Arts in Ceramics in 2016. That summer, following graduation, I moved to Kansas City, MO to begin a ceramics artist in residence program at Belger Crane Yard Studios. My mother joined me here in KC and a year into my residency, my son also moved here. Kansas City has a dynamic, thriving art scene. When my residency ended in 2018 it seemed a natural conclusion to stay and make the area my home. I now have a converted room off the garage as my studio and live in a small family compound with my mother and son where we all take care of each other. I live on an acre and a half on the far east side of the city where I have a creek running through the property and lots of wildlife and native plants to inspire my work. I spend time in my garden and taking care of my dog and three cats. I split my art-making between working in my home studio, making and firing at Belger Crane Yard Studios and KC Clay Guild, and teaching classes. 

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
I’ve been challenged by numerous things along the way including surviving cancer, chronic pain, and mental health issues, domestic violence and a dramatic divorce, and finally helping my son recover from a traumatic brain injury. Through it all, art has anchored and buoyed me up. It has made me feel whole and has served as therapy and allowed much self-expression. I feel so grateful to be where I am in a community that is so supportive of artists. 

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
My passion is creating utilitarian pottery pieces and dimensional wall tiles. I use both hand building and wheel throwing processes to create my work. I am able to combine my love for drawing with three-dimensional form by creating layers of information on the surfaces. I explore the nature of intimacy by layering memories of the past with the present. Inspired by architectural elements, flora, and fauna, my work investigates relationships and the passage of time through the use of imagery, pattern, and texture. 

Depth in the surface is created by layering masks and stencils and the building up of the surface through application of liquid clay slips. Additional texture is created through fine line drawings which are etched into the surface of the clay and then inlaid and stained with contrasting colors. 

My work provides an opportunity for us to slow down and find joy. I see my surfaces as a playground for the eye while the warm, rich surfaces and textures entreat the fingertips to linger, explore and trace designs around the form, much as we do when interacting with a loved one. Subtle nuances in the shape and placement of a handle, the thickness of a rim, the way pattern and texture flow across and around a piece, invite one to slow down and take time to notice all the details. I am influenced by patterns in man-made structures both large and small as well as those that occur naturally in the environment and apply designs to my work inspired by this. 

I primarily soda fire my work because of the element of surprise owing to the unpredictable nature of the process. While I have complete control of form and surface design, I then turn the work over to the dynamic processes of transformation within the kiln. I can control the temperature, duration, and atmosphere of the kiln but what comes out is always something different than what I predicted. This element of surprise is another reason I apply flashing slips to alter the surface color of the clay while allowing the natural clay to show through in certain areas. Flashing slips respond dramatically to the introduction of soda ash into the kiln environment becoming the soothing colors that remind me of summer fruit and fall foliage. 

Occasionally time and opportunities allow for other kiln firing processes and I dabble in both white on white surfaces as well as bold, happy, colorful surfaces. 

How do you define success?
If I am constantly growing, enjoying what I am doing, and bringing joy to others then I feel successful. 

Contact Info:

• Email: [email protected]
• Website: http://www.kellylynndaniels.com/
• Instagram: instagram.com/kellylynndaniels
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100042064637895
• Other: https://www.etsy.com/shop/dancingclay