‘In the Drink’

LIHUE — Jennifer Hill’s long-awaited ceramic show, “In the Drink,” starts Saturday at Alley Kat Art, a studio-gallery whose singularity makes up for the tight space, located at 4-1379 Kuhio Highway in Kapa‘a.

Gallery-owner and artist/designer Kathy McClelland Cowan will host the event, which will run through Oct. 1. The artist’s pre-show will be held Wednesday from 5 to 8 p.m.

“My inspiration usually comes from living here on the beautiful island of Kauai, with its luscious flora and its uniquely vibrant coloring,” Hill said.

Defying artistic categories, Hill mostly finds inspiration in nature. “The tiny scratches and dimples found in a stone or limb are born of natural causes. I don’t have time for erosion, so I have to make all those little marks myself.”

  Hill enjoys making mikioi ceramics, a clay art form of diminutive proportions that refers to deft and dainty craftsmanship. “My pottery is intimate in scale and meant to be enjoyed up close, in your hands.”

Each piece is made by wheel throwing or by her own unusual building techniques. The nimble stature of her work entices the viewer to lean in for closer inspection.

“It’s meant to be intimate when it is held right in your hands. My work is meant to be looked at closely,” she said.

Bordering on architecture and fine art, the ceramic sculptures of the Wailua artist ring with geometric whimsy.

“I don’t do literal or obvious imagery,” she said. “I compare being a visual artist to being a musician. To know the music, first you have to listen to it.”

Even though some of her ceramics are clearly utilitarian with food-safe glazes, they all retain a sculptural aspect that evokes the ideal of muti-purposeful aestheticism.

With a surgeon’s precision, Hill creates botanically-inspired clay structures that can fit in the palm of one’s hand.

Utilizing both hand-building technique and a potter’s wheel to build the tiny monuments, Hill said the majority of her work is in surface decoration.

“Working this small, I have to make a statement, even if it’s a really quiet one. Otherwise it looks like I just made it too small.”

Hill’s latest ceramic creations were inspired by the textures of the sea. “Typically the flora of my environment is my muse but after four years on Kaua‘i the ocean is also having its effect on my work.”  

“In the Drink” refers to both the useful concept of these vessels and the ethereal body of water that inspires them.

“I pull ideas from both the sea life I observe underwater and the churning surface of the ocean,” she said.

Coincidently, Hill’s husband is a scuba diver who created a vast photo library of creatures that she said she would otherwise miss. She is planning on incorporating more of the textures that she regularly gleans from his images in future projects.  

The 2-inch vases and cups ring with an engineer’s accuracy. Orbs sprout sinewy roots, tiny vessels come cloaked in delicate scrolls, or wavelets unfurl in such perpetual fashion that one feels tides swirling within the vessel, as is the case with the tumbler titled “Ocean.”

Such notion reoccurs often, as her technically utilitarian designs boast unusual, indeed at times perplexing structures, as seen in her series of “Citrus Spiked” vessels, which were built piece by piece from bottom to top, in a fashion analogous to brick-laying.

“I often use extremely simple tools. Most of them are the ones you use in your first pottery class,” Hill said.  

Despite using simple tools, her designs happen to be complex. Not only does Hill make her own stamps for texturing, she also turns sticks, shells, stones and any other natural item that she finds interesting into a tool that bears the originality of her works as evidenced in each of her items’ unique surface decoration.

Her unconventional techniques undoubtedly make for highly unusual craftmanship.

“It’s about creating the texture,” she said, “I want the glaze to look like it’s part of the clay.”

With a master’s degree in ceramics and 10 years spent teaching her craft at various colleges, Hill’s artistic career spans over 15 years. She earned her MFA in ceramics at Utah State University after receiving a BFA from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, her home city.

Hill’s work has appeared in numerous invitational and juried group exhibitions, and was featured in books, magazines and solo shows across North America.

  In 2011, her work was shown during a much-celebrated event in Waikiki called “Hawai‘i’s Modern Masters.”

Later that year, she exhibited her ceramics at Hawai‘i Craftsmen’s 44th annual Statewide Juried Exhibition.

In 2012, Washington state gallery owner Patricia Cameron, in collaboration with Suzanne Wolfe from Honolulu, displayed some of her works in Seattle, aptly titled “Hawai‘i on the Edge.”

For more information visit www.alleykatart.com or call 651-1766. You may also contact Jennifer Hill at jenniferhillceramics.com.