The most relevant, influential and culturally potent objects fraternize with an edge, exploring the moment where an expected beauty becomes deconstructed and familiar objects are reconsidered. My work considers the tipping point between elegance and awkwardness, questioning conventional beauty within historical forms, where the familiar object becomes the artifact. My research embraces multiple histories and the nuanced and complex relationship we have with objects in our everyday lives. Culture accumulates in layers upon our objects of use, ritual and prosaic, my own intentions are to shed light and perhaps even give reverence to this cultural dynamic.
Jane Shellenbarger is an Assistant Professor in The School for American Crafts at Rochester Institute of Technology. She has taught at many craft schools around the country, among them, Penland School of Crafts, Arrowmont School of Crafts, and Haystack Mountain School of Crafts. Shellenbarger has exhibited her work in several prominent galleries around the country including: Leslie Ferrin Gallery, Lacoste Gallery, Lill Street, AKAR Gallery, Santa Fe Clay, Philadelphia Clay Studio, Red Lodge Clay Center and Baltimore Clayworks. Jane recently bought a house and studio in rural western New York. She has just completed a small soda kiln and is anxious to build more atmospheric kilns and at her studio pottery on Buck Run Creek.