Who: Carren Clarke, Woodland Heights Studio
What She Makes: Pottery with “functional flair,” including mugs, jars, sculptures and more
Words She Lives By: “Creativity is stored in a vessel, designed to be emptied and replenished.” —Larry Poncho Brown
How She Got Started: One evening, Carren Clarke tuned in to an episode of “Virginia Currents,” then hosted by longtime public broadcasting personality May-Lily Lee. The program featured women in pottery across the Richmond region, which immediately caught Clarke’s attention. One particular artist, Nga Nguyen-Weaver, stood out, as she offered classes in her own studio. “I saw her on PBS, and I said, ‘Hey, I want to do this,’ ” Clarke recalls. In a serendipitous progression of events, one studio class led to an internship, then a mentorship, then a 20-year business partnership. In that time, Clarke has been prolific in her craft, creating pieces spanning from housewares to sculptures. When she’s not generating new pieces, Clarke teaches classes at the Woodland Heights Studio, which she co-owns with Nguyen-Weaver.
Inspiration and Process: Inspired by her travels to Europe and Africa, Clarke says she is enamored with the changing functionality and meaning that exist in pottery and its ability to transcend time. “Pottery tells so many stories about so many different nations,” she explains. With that, in each of her pieces Clarke strives to tell her own stories. “I consider myself a functional storyteller,” says the artist. For Clarke, these stories can start with something as simple as a word or a song, later evolving into incredibly detailed pieces.
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What Makes Her Work Unique: Describing her work as having “functional flair,” Clarke says one of her goals is to make pieces “so beautiful that you still want to drink out of them.” This intersection of form and function allows people to appreciate the artist’s story while also merging their own personal experiences. “You get to walk around and see the color, feel the texture, look at the patina and feel the weight of it,” Clarke says.
Through her travels and time spent in various museums and galleries, Clarke couldn’t help but notice the absence of ceramic work centered around African American culture. This lack of representation encouraged her to highlight stories of the African diaspora in her own pieces. “I wanted to create this body of work so that African Americans and people of the African diaspora would be able to see themselves in the work,” she explains.
Where to Find Her Work: Clarke’s work is available at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts’ gift shop and at woodlandheightsstudio.com.
