MARTYE ALLEN

Lake Nebagamon, Wisconsin

Martye creates wheel thrown and hand built pottery in her northern Wisconsin studio. The designs and animal imagery on her pots are accomplished by a variety of painting and glazing techniques including scraffito (etching through glaze or slip to the clay body), wax resist, and over glazing.

Residing in the woods, Martye Allen frequently catches sight of the subjects of her paintings… bears, wolves, ravens, frogs, and an occasional moose. From these first hand observations, Martye captures the personality, movement and charming humor of woodland creatures.

Artist’s Statement

My interests are no different than those of most potters. I am

intrigued by certain forms, pattern, colors, and movement.

Although I occasionally work with earthenware and stoneware,

I prefer the characteristics of porcelain for my pots. The

responsiveness of porcelain allows me to make soft, fluid forms

with a sense of movement that perhaps gives the impression

that they are still spinning on the wheel. Porcelain has a

translucent quality that enhances the color of my glazes.

Although I have been drawing on my pots for years, an exhibition

of Anasazi pottery was the inspiration for the animals I now depict

on pottery and more recently in block printing. The animal imagery

on those ancient pots really overwhelmed me and I started to

   research Anasazi art and prehistoric cave paintings. There is

something both childlike and sophisticated in the drawings, along

with a whimsical quality that is so wonderful. The heads or the

bodies are too big or the legs are too small…you know those legs

could never support that enormous body. It is not my intention to

copy these images, but I think their essence is evident in my

drawings.

for Martye Allen

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