Artist: Clarice Allgood
Clarice Allgood, MINNESOTA
I consider the pots I choose to make as tools. Some are tools of conviviality but most are objects that support moments of engaged solitude such as knitting, gardening, reading, and cooking. These pots inhabit the world I want to live in, inclusive of any and all activities which encourage self-reliance and connection. I make for a culture composed of well used objects rather than consumed ones. These objects feel particularly applicable to where we find ourselves today. Studio practice means tinkering with variations of yarn bowls, watering pots, bookends and kitchen aids, as well as serving pieces for intimate gatherings. I hope to offer objects which might lend delight, beauty and comfort in this new world of ours.
A nomadic, modest upbringing, rich in craft and thrift, instilled a Make Do aesthetic and inspired a trust in handiwork and available resources. In this vein, my work focuses on sharing this trust by re-purposing conventional standardware forms, recycling motifs of indistinct eras and design elements of other handcrafts. Formulated duets of slips and glazes enhance the vagaries of atmospheric firing and ambiguities of pattern, providing an ultimate record of the surrender to uncertainty. Along the warp and the changeable, instances of unity and equilibrium are infinitely and heartbreakingly present for discovery. Everything is its own reward.
Clarice Allgood is a functional potter and teaching artist based in Minneapolis, MN. An unconventional ceramic education of workshops, open studios and unofficial residencies led Allgood to Minnesota in 2018. In 2019, she graduated from the advanced certificate program MN NICE and was the 2020 Fogelberg Studio Fellow at Northern Clay Center. From a free spirited, nomadic childhood to an academic education in philosophy come a perspective rooted in thoughtfulness and curiosity. She’s particularly fond of making tools. Some are tools of conviviality, some are meant to enrich what she calls “quiet acts of self-reliance”: watering pots for gardening, bowls for knitting, utensils for cooking, bookends to organize reading. Though Allgood is thoroughly involved in the making and conceptualizing processes, the relinquishing her work to the unpredictability of the soda kiln is an important part of her
Education
2002 MA: Philosophy, magna cum laude, Georgia State University (GRA)
1998 BA: Philosophy, cum laude, Georgia State University
Ceramics
2020 Fogelberg Studio Fellowship through Northern Clay Center, Mpls MN
2019 Certificate, MN NICE Program, Northern Clay Center, Mpls MN
2018 Residency, Mark Shapiro/Stonepool Pottery, Westhampton MA
2017 Workshop Participant, Anderson Ranch Arts Center (Scholarship), Aspen CO
2017 Residency, Mark Shapiro/Stonepool Pottery, Westhampton MA
2016 Workshop Participant, Penland School of Craft, Mark Shapiro/Sam Taylor (Scholarship), Penland NC
Selected Works, Exhibitions and Representation
2020 Guest Potter Western Wisconsin Pottery Tour
2019 “Northern Clay Center Members Exhibition,” Mpls MN
2019 “Security in a State of Violence,” APE Gallery, Northampton MA
2019 Sales Gallery, Textile Center Gallery, Mpls MN
2018- Northern Clay Center Gallery, Mpls MN
2018- Duluth Pottery, Duluth MN
2017-19 Macon Arts Alliance Gallery, Macon GA
2016 Featured Artist, Mudfire Clayworks and Gallery, Decatur GA
2015-19 Mudfire Clayworks and Gallery, Decatur GA
2011 "On the Fringe,” Mixed Media, GA Perimeter College, Clarkston GA
2010 "Exits in Retrograde (Necessity in a Yellow Box)," 7th Biennial Outdoor Sculpture Exhibit, GA Perimeter College, Clarkston GA
2009 “Gateway to the World,” Mural, College Park GA
2008 "Should Stumps Have Seating," 6th Biennial Outdoor Sculpture Exhibit, GA Perimeter College, Clarkston GA
2006-7 College Park Arts Festival, College Park GA
2006-7 East Point Arts Festival, East Point GA
2005 "The Examined Life," Forum at Defoor Centre, Atlanta GA
Experience
2019 Instructor, White Bear Center for the Arts, White Bear Lake MN
2018-19 Studio Support, Northern Clay Center, Mpls MN
2016-18 Staff/Instructor, Mudfire Clayworks and Gallery, Atlanta GA
2007-12 Head Tutor, Lit/Math, Gateway to College Academy, Clarkston GA
2005-6 Temple Gallery Director, Dekalb Council for the Arts, Decatur GA
2005 Juror, 8th Annual Oakhurst Arts and Music Festival, Decatur GA
2001-19 Co-owner, Joy Investments, LLC., Atlanta GA
1993-95 Director/Instructor of Mathematics, Fa'asao College Preparatory Girls High School, American Samoa
1993-95 Director/Instructor of Fine Arts, Marist College Preparatory Boys High School, American Samoa
1992-93 Project Coordinator/Instructor, American Samoa Council on Arts, Culture and Humanities, American Samoa
Awards/Recognition
2006-7 “Best in Show,” College Park Arts Festival, College Park, GA
2006 First Place, Student Art Show, Perimeter College, Clarkston GA
2005 Merit Award, Student Art Show, Perimeter College, Clarkston GA
1998 Honors Award, Classical Languages, Georgia State University, Atlanta GA
Press
2018 Catalog Entry, Anderson Ranch Arts Center Annual Art Auction
2012 Article, “Negatiivinen Tila: Yksityisalueen Avaaminen Yhteisille Elämyksille,” Korkea Taivas
2004 Introduction, “Fleshly Resonance,” Johanna Hällsten, Birmingham Botanical Gardens and Glasshouses, United Kingdom
2004 Citation, British Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 44(1):44-56
Workshops/Lectures
2017 Demonstrator, “Handles”, Mudfire Clayworks, Decatur GA
2017 Demonstrating Potter, Atlanta Craft Council, Atlanta GA
2010 Speaker, “Negative Space: Reframing Personal Space as Perceptual Commons,” Living Walls the City Speaks: A Conference on Street Art and Urbanism, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta GA
2010 Speaker, “Negative Space…” 7th Intl Conference on Environmental Aesthetics: Celestial Aesthetics: The Aesthetics of Sky, Space, and Heaven, Valamo Monastery, Heinävesi, Finland
2005 Co-presenter, “Soap-making with Beeswax”, GA Beekeepers Assn Annual Conference, University of Georgia, Athens GA
2003 Commentator, American Society for Aesthetics, Philadelphia PA
2002 Speaker, “Next Stop, Scenic(World)View: A few Implications of Synesthesia for Environmental Aesthetics, Seventh Intl Summer School of Applied Aesthetics, "Aesthetics of the Unseen," Lahti Finland
Professional Memberships
National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts
Minnesota Women Ceramic Artists
American Society of Aesthetics
Volunteer Work:
2019 NCECA, Core Crew, “Make In” with Mark Shapiro and Sam Taylor
2019-17 St. Croix Valley Pottery Tour, Assistant
2013-18 Center for Puppetry Arts, Educator and House Management
2012-18 Chattahoochee Riverkeeper, Proctor Creek Water Monitor
1999-10 Adopt-a-Stream, Utoy Tributary Water Monitor