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 Clay Art Center is proud to present Anecdote, a solo exhibition of functional ceramic work inspired by the relevance of poetry in making and using utilitarian objects. The exhibit will run from November 5 - 26, 2011 with an artists’ reception on Saturday, November 5, from 6-8pm.
In conjunction with the exhibition, Clay Art Center is also hosting a one-day workshop with Sean, entitled, “Beneath the Surface,” Saturday, November 5, 10am – 5pm. Admission to the gallery and the SHOP at CAC, featuring one-of-a kind handmade pottery and sculpture, is free.
Sean O’Connell’s work, with its graceful forms and lush surfaces, will take you on a journey. Walking into a room of his pottery, you will sense the contemplative whisperings of the natural world. You will wonder how it is that a pot can make you feel peaceful and alive in the same moment, and you will be amazed.
 About his work, Sean O’Connell states, “there is a poem written by Wallace Stevens that has been on the edge of my awareness for two years now. It’s titled, “The Anecdote of the Jar.” In this brief, and to me, profound piece or writing it is suggested that objects, shaped by human hands, are the pioneers of making the wild places of this world habitable. They are markers of a place as well as a time. In this poem the ‘jar’ is such an object, and once placed in the wilderness by the poet, it creates a place to live, a place that makes sense to us. Yet, inherent to this relationship is a paradox. It is the wilderness that has dominion over us, who we are, and what we make. It shapes everything in its turn and image. We are ultimately subject to our own dependency on the land.
“The ‘wilderness’ has a very literal and conceptual presence in what I make. The imagery on my pots comes from my walks through wild places, but places that nonetheless have a human presence to them. There is a magic that permeates my awareness when I step quietly through a forest, over a carpet of fallen leaves, and through groves of trees lifetimes older than me. Pottery is my means of making sense of what I’ve seen, making my memories of those places habitable, and mediating between my love of the wilderness and my dependence on the modern world.”
I placed a jar in Tennessee,
And round it was, upon a hill.
It made the slovenly wilderness
Surround that hill.
The wilderness rose up to it,
And sprawled around, no longer wild.
The jar was round upon the ground
And tall and of a port in air.
It took dominion every where.
The jar was gray and bare.
It did not give of bird or bush,
Like nothing else in Tennessee.
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Sean O'Connell has been a maker and educator in ceramic arts for over ten years. He completed his BFA at the Kansas City Art Institute ('01) and an MFA at the School for America Crafts ('09) in Rochester, NY. In addition to being an active studio artist he has held several positions at Colleges in the Finger Lakes region of Western NY as well as having a long history teaching in community centers in the mid-west and eastern US. Most recently he and his spouse Cori have moved to Helena, MT where Sean will be a Fellow at the Archie Bray Foundation for the 2011-2012 year. 
