Deanna Ranlett

Deanna Ranlett at MudFire

Gallery group show Damn Right I Got the Blues, June 2011
Gallery group show Teapots A Go-Go 2006
Gallery group show Serve This, October 2004
Gallery group show 8 x 10 Atlanta, November 2003
Solo show Hidden Spaces, November 2002

About Deanna Ranlett

As an artist who also owns a ceramic supply shop, Atlanta Clay, I am balancing the challenges of being Atlanta's go to girl for clay questions as well as finding the time to manage the creation of my work - for me building is an act of meditation and release from the daily grind.

I enjoy the challenge and process of microcrystalline glazing because it requires a lot of glaze work - both in formulation and firing. My handbuilt vessels allow me to have quiet meditative space and my active layering of glazes is an outlet for a more frenetic form of energy and general sense of surprise.

As a ceramic artist, I often find myself occupying the middle ground - blurring the conventional definitions of organic versus geometric form, and functional versus sculptural intent. I consider myself a vessel maker, but my vessels do not serve a defined utilitarian purpose - most are sculptural, some with functional references, but with no designated use.

My vessels are active as well as meditative works, which allow them to be a vehicle for exploration and thought. My intent is for the viewer to find their point of reference - be it organic, figurative, or architectural. I am inspired by the body, landscape, and design elements of varying types, but do not directly incorporate these ideas on a conscious level. Later, after a piece is completed, I relish the images that appear to me as well as to the viewer. The exploration of completed works is as important to me as the initial construction. For me, each piece serves to evoke visual memories, becoming a physical representation of actions, visions, and thoughts in my own life. I strive for a personal connection to my work while providing a reflective space for the viewer to interpret my work and make his or her own personal connections. My work is an interpretation of my own feelings and experiences without forcing a direct reference so personal as to alienate the viewer.

My conscious artistic focus is form and line, and how these elements can be enhanced with color, sparkling glazes, or an unexpected detail like a sweeping curve, strong plane, or a glassy meditative pool. I enclose and reveal spaces within my work, where often the underneath "hidden" areas of the piece are the most deliberate. These hidden areas offer an area of active exploration for the viewer. I incorporate these "closed" areas, to represent the places and ideas that we all keep inside - be they secrets, ponderings, meditation, or creative ramblings. In contrast, the top surfaces are a smooth, cool expanse of space - a plane for the viewer to rest upon or meditate, a reflecting place for the secrets we keep locked inside. The top surfaces are becoming more interactive, more abstractly sexy, calling for the viewer to reach out to the work, and have an active, tactile dialogue experiencing for themselves what is already a visual memory for me.