I wrote a two page summary of my pottery life to tape to the wall at the art show at the Blue Sage Center for the Arts. Here it is:
Tara Miller ~ Artist Biography
Note: This link: Table of Contents
will help you find specific items of our work on previous posts.
Introduction to Clay
My first memory of working with clay was about 3rd grade in Hermiston, Oregon, a clay duck for Mother's Day. I took my first real pottery class in 1972 at Southwestern Oregon Community College in Coos Bay, Oregon, while teaching high school English, just to “play in the mud,” and the clay captured my imagination. That teacher advised beginners to keep a piece of our earliest work, to “keep yourself humble.” (I have that piece, but it is not in this show.) After a couple years of teaching, having saved enough money to “take a year off,” I found places to do pottery. I even fired in a burning barrel with the pots buried in smoldering sawdust. I only returned to teaching English much later with a few offerings in the Paonia Vision homeschool program.
Portland, Oregon 1974-1976
Eventually I landed a job as lab assistant at Portland Community College. There I managed glaze inventory and studio organization, and fired the kilns. This gave me not only a place to work and studio management experience, but access to workshops and lectures with master potters such as Betty Woodman, Tom Coleman, and P. K. Hoffman. Woodman's stretched platters directly inspired my work that resulted in the Triptych Vessels and hanging oval platters that you see in this show.
Pyromaniac Potters
I attended a couple of crazy two-week summer workshops near Hood River, Oregon, hosted by P. K. Hoffman. We built the kickwheels, made pottery, gathered firewood, and stacked the raw pots on kiln shelves. Then we actually built the kiln AROUND the stacked pots, and fired for three days with wood and salt to a very high temperature. All the while we camped in the cherry orchard and bathed by secular sweat lodge (“Hot Rocks!”) with a cold plunge in the creek.
Mentor, Paul Soldner
P. K's primary mentor was Paul Soldner, so when I was getting ready to build my own kiln and learned of a kiln-building workshop with this master, I jumped at the chance and spent two weeks in Seattle at the base of the Space Needle at the new location for Pottery Northwest. We built 8 kilns in 2 weeks. Soldner became my primary mentor, with his flamboyance and willingness to experiment. Over the years our friendship and his influence continued after I moved to the Aspen area. When asked the difference between art and craft, Paul would reply, “It's art if you are continually making decisions; craft when you already know what you are doing.”
Wood firing, unrealistic marketing
After that workshop, I built my own kiln at a rented home outside Portland, Oregon, dug my own clay and fired with free firewood. My main products were red-clay flower pots with beautiful ash effects, but dime-store planters were my competition. In retrospect, I should have taken the inspiration from Soldner and made more flamboyant sculpture.
Guatemala, 1975
So I went travelling and ended up living with a family of indigenous potters near Totonicapan, Guatemala. They actually prepared their clay, dug from a pit in the back yard, on a metate con mano. It was the only task I couldn't help with, as I got blisters within a brief stint at the grinder. Miguel asked me to marry him, saying that working together without being family was “child's play,” but I declined. Anyway he was already married. I made small flutes myself and sold a few in the market at absurdly low prices. Mainly I learned the techniques of Miguel's family's practical and beautiful tamale steamers. We fired with wood, my Spanish language skills improved greatly, and the memories of that experience greatly enrich my life.
Aspen and Snowmass 1976-1990
Shortly after returning to the states I moved to Aspen and worked as a picture framer for my sister's photography business, Hill Photography. I learned a lot about art and art marketing as well as photography and framing. During that time, I took classes at Colorado Mountain College, Aspen campus, and eventually quit my framing job and worked again as studio manager. Finally in 1982, I turned my pottery hobby into a full-time profession.
Anderson Ranch
All the time I was in Aspen, I participated with the Anderson Ranch Art Center. One winter, I rented studio space in their drafty barn. In the summer during their teaching season, I was privileged to attend potlucks and Tuesday night free lectures in all media, which fed my soul and knowledge of art and ceramics. I took workshops from such notable masters as John Glick, Victor Babu, Chris Gustin and Jenny Lind. I also participated in several clay symposia, including California Clay in the Rockies, with memorable lectures and demonstrations from such giants in the field as Daniel Rhodes, Peter Voulkos, Ruth Duckworth, Don Reitz, Toshiko Takaezu, Patti Warashina, Michael Frimkess, Bob Sperry and, of course, Paul Soldner. I also learned much from fellow students and managers at The Ranch, most notably, Doug Casebeer and David Strong.
Marriage and Partnership
In 1984 I married Sam Brown and our partnership allowed us to make more clay work and to travel and sell together at art fairs. The full time commitment made us a living and allowed the freedom to travel. In particular, we have made a relationship with an indigenous community on Taquile Island, Lake Titicaca, Peru, which we have visited regularly since 1986. We introduced solar energy and continue to help with this technology. The people there are textile artists, and we find a commonality in shared craftsmanship, even if in different media. Though I have played with clay found on the island and taught with children, I have never been able to fire successfully there. Fuel is too scarce.
Paonia
We moved to Paonia in 1990 and continued production, selling in both galleries and juried art fairs. I created a line of slip-decorated mugs with wildlife and sports themed images; Sam focussed on handbuilding, in particular open-structured fruit baskets. My studio has at least 15 glazes that can be combined for many colors. I've made full dinnerware sets and all manner of functional stoneware. In 2005, I organized the art show in conjunction with the first production of the Vagina Monologues in Paonia, and created several pieces for that show, celebrating the woman's body. I once had a one-woman show called Poem Pottery wherein the pottery was inspired by my poetry, some with poems written on the pots.
Retirement?
We retired from full-time production pottery in 2019 (just in time for the pandemic) and Sam no longer works with the clay. I continue to express myself in clay and my most current interest is in planters and plants. My mentor, Paul Soldner, was also a bonsai artist, and I have taken inspiration from his work to propogate plants and find ways to harmonize the living plants in their ceramic homes.
Thank you for attending this show, which includes so many pieces from this history.
Tara Miller
