"It is not that I persist in being an artist but, rather, that I doggedly resist being anything else."
—Carla Malone
—Carla Malone
The wry and self-effacing statement above belies the fact that Carla Malone was indeed an accomplished ceramic sculptor, an artist who was hitting her stride at the time of her premature death in 1996.
Born in 1954 on the east coast, Carla lived most of her life in Stockton, California. Regarding her upbringing and interest in art, she remarked, “I can’t remember a specific beginning to my wanting to make art. Both my parents were painters, and as a child, I was constantly making pictures, gluing objects together, sewing doll clothes. My interest in ceramics began when I was an undergraduate art student at the University of the Pacific. There was only one woman teacher [Louise Lieber], and she taught ceramics and art history. For her, the wheel was not a serious art tool. This influenced my hand-building techniques and my philosophy of sculpture.”
Carla had an immediate attraction to clay and its sculptural possibilities. “Clay is forgiving. It’s a very versatile medium.” And a tactile, sensual one, too. Eschewing clay-throwing on the wheel, she chose to hand-construct most of her work using primitive coil and slab techniques, which gave her carte blanche to build asymmetrically and to append, enfold, and carve her striking forms.
Central to Carla’s vision of her work was a love of ancient pottery, simple vessels that convey a certain earthy human spirit and show the maker's imprint. She did not try to re-create those forms, but she did consider most of her pieces to be vessels, albeit false or spurious vessels. As she said, “My vessels pay homage to those of ancient cultures, but the extravagant proportions and features of my pieces render the work nonfunctional. They are allegorical contemporary forms that attempt to recapture a human element intrinsic in the historical pieces." Whether large or small, her sculptures combine a modern sophistication and wit with a sense of archaeological artifact.
After receiving a BA from UOP and an MFA from San Jose State University, Carla began to work in earnest in her Stockton studio. Using Sandstone Buff from Quyle Kilns in Murphys, California—a clay rich in iron oxide and having good thermal-shock qualities—Carla began to build increasingly larger works, which she built in sections. Her approach was organic and based on intuition, with only brief sketches made on paper. "Twenty feet is perhaps the highest height I will aspire to," she said. "Nothing too overwhelming."
She experimented with pit-firing her pieces, but most were fired just once in an electric kiln. Once the desired bisque state had been reached, Malone would use a Western raku “reduction” technique. With special tongs, she removed the ceramic piece from the kiln while it was still red hot and placed it in a metal garbage can with combustible material such as newspaper, leaves, or sawdust—even walnut hulls. The heat ignited the material, and Malone sealed the can with its lid. Needing oxygen for complete combustion and finding little in the sealed can, the smoky fire would search for another source of oxygen. The fire then pulled an atom of oxygen from the clay’s red iron oxide, chemically turning it to black iron oxide and giving Malone’s ceramic pieces their characteristic smoky gray-black appearance.
In the 1980s and early 1990s, Carla exhibited her work widely on the west coast. However, moving her pieces to and from art shows proved to be a challenge. Raku ware is, by its nature, fragile and porous and easily chipped. The size and the weight of the sculptures were also impediments to transportation. Many of her pieces were damaged or broken through the years, although some of the best pieces remain intact in collections both private and public, including those of the American Museum of Ceramic Art (California) and the Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art (Utah).
Carla died in 1996, after a prolonged battle with breast cancer. She was 42 years old. This website was created to introduce Carla’s work to a wider audience and to preserve her artistic legacy. As Carla once wrote, “Although the role of the vessel in our culture has been diminished to a state of mere function or decoration, the ability of the vessel to refer to human experience still remains and, I hope, in my work can be reawakened.” Take a look at this impressive collection. I think you’ll agree.
Born in 1954 on the east coast, Carla lived most of her life in Stockton, California. Regarding her upbringing and interest in art, she remarked, “I can’t remember a specific beginning to my wanting to make art. Both my parents were painters, and as a child, I was constantly making pictures, gluing objects together, sewing doll clothes. My interest in ceramics began when I was an undergraduate art student at the University of the Pacific. There was only one woman teacher [Louise Lieber], and she taught ceramics and art history. For her, the wheel was not a serious art tool. This influenced my hand-building techniques and my philosophy of sculpture.”
Carla had an immediate attraction to clay and its sculptural possibilities. “Clay is forgiving. It’s a very versatile medium.” And a tactile, sensual one, too. Eschewing clay-throwing on the wheel, she chose to hand-construct most of her work using primitive coil and slab techniques, which gave her carte blanche to build asymmetrically and to append, enfold, and carve her striking forms.
Central to Carla’s vision of her work was a love of ancient pottery, simple vessels that convey a certain earthy human spirit and show the maker's imprint. She did not try to re-create those forms, but she did consider most of her pieces to be vessels, albeit false or spurious vessels. As she said, “My vessels pay homage to those of ancient cultures, but the extravagant proportions and features of my pieces render the work nonfunctional. They are allegorical contemporary forms that attempt to recapture a human element intrinsic in the historical pieces." Whether large or small, her sculptures combine a modern sophistication and wit with a sense of archaeological artifact.
After receiving a BA from UOP and an MFA from San Jose State University, Carla began to work in earnest in her Stockton studio. Using Sandstone Buff from Quyle Kilns in Murphys, California—a clay rich in iron oxide and having good thermal-shock qualities—Carla began to build increasingly larger works, which she built in sections. Her approach was organic and based on intuition, with only brief sketches made on paper. "Twenty feet is perhaps the highest height I will aspire to," she said. "Nothing too overwhelming."
She experimented with pit-firing her pieces, but most were fired just once in an electric kiln. Once the desired bisque state had been reached, Malone would use a Western raku “reduction” technique. With special tongs, she removed the ceramic piece from the kiln while it was still red hot and placed it in a metal garbage can with combustible material such as newspaper, leaves, or sawdust—even walnut hulls. The heat ignited the material, and Malone sealed the can with its lid. Needing oxygen for complete combustion and finding little in the sealed can, the smoky fire would search for another source of oxygen. The fire then pulled an atom of oxygen from the clay’s red iron oxide, chemically turning it to black iron oxide and giving Malone’s ceramic pieces their characteristic smoky gray-black appearance.
In the 1980s and early 1990s, Carla exhibited her work widely on the west coast. However, moving her pieces to and from art shows proved to be a challenge. Raku ware is, by its nature, fragile and porous and easily chipped. The size and the weight of the sculptures were also impediments to transportation. Many of her pieces were damaged or broken through the years, although some of the best pieces remain intact in collections both private and public, including those of the American Museum of Ceramic Art (California) and the Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art (Utah).
Carla died in 1996, after a prolonged battle with breast cancer. She was 42 years old. This website was created to introduce Carla’s work to a wider audience and to preserve her artistic legacy. As Carla once wrote, “Although the role of the vessel in our culture has been diminished to a state of mere function or decoration, the ability of the vessel to refer to human experience still remains and, I hope, in my work can be reawakened.” Take a look at this impressive collection. I think you’ll agree.
—Christa Malone