“Clay is the original creative medium, connecting us to our ancestors, to all humanity, and to the ultimate act of creation.
Through clay, we experience first hand the creation of the Universe.
We are all clay artists.”
— Ren Lee
Elemental Earth & Magic
I have always been enchanted by folk tales, cultural creation stories and myths, and have never forgotten the wonder I felt as a kid in descriptions of fantastic creatures such as dragons, elves, trolls, ogres, nature spirits and fairies. These days I’m still fascinated, and I’m still reading history and folklore and ancient wisdom, not to mention the occasional work of derivative fiction. It’s an amazingly powerful trove of insight and invention, human nature, and our relationship to each other and the unknown. My studio time is invested in creating magic moments out of mud and spirit, elements of earth combined with the ineffable spark of creation. And then there’s the fire bit. So primal. So alchemical. This is my world now.
Inside Ren’s Studio and Process
Ren talks with Hal Raines and Aileen Imperatrice about her creative process from foundation through firing the soda kiln in this segment from Artful.TV.
Ren Lee brings a ‘Weirwood’ to CHS
By Donald Munro
You don’t have to travel to the Weirwood at Winterfall in “Game of Thrones” to commune with talking trees. Ceramic artist Ren Lee is one step ahead of you.
Her new show at Clay Hand Studios, “Old Gods & Reformed Monsters,” is an immersion in what Lee calls richly drawn, heroic, magical, and whimsical characters that are revered and called upon to safeguard homes, crops, loved ones, and future events.
I’ve been working with clay since 2005, when I took a class at Sunset Canyon Pottery in Texas for a fun thing to do. Before that, I spent a fair amount of time as a marketing and branding wonk for restaurants and specialty foods. Before that, I worked as a graphic designer. Along the way, I got an MFA in design and a PhD in Advertising, Marketing, Cultural Anthropology and Consumer Psychology. That’s a mouthful of academe and as soon as I finished the ordeal of writing my dissertation I escaped into the relatively more satisfying world of entrepreneurship where I roller coastered through owning an orchard, a packing company and running a specialty crop association for a while. You never know what will lead you to something new and interesting, but I have to admit that everything I ever studied, and everything I ever did is useful and applicable to what I do now: transforming mud into something with presence and attitude.
Feel free to email Ren with any questions.