Dews’ ceramic sculptures ‘inspired by dreams’
By Debora Gordon for Ashland.news
A longtime Ashland ceramic artist will host a multi-day sculpture workshop Saturday through Sunday, Sept. 19-21, at 300 E. Hersey St., Ashland.
Penelope Dews, whose artist moniker is Dews, has more information about the class at dewsceramics.com/workshops. It costs $250, and those with experience from beginners to advanced are welcome, though some knowledge of the craft is helpful, according to the website.
The workshop includes concepts such as throwing on the wheel and hand building sculpture techniques. Group and private lessons are offered.
“I teach people whatever it is they want to know,” Dews said.
Dews’ website also includes information about current work, upcoming exhibitions and photos of her pieces.
An artist’s education
Dews is a fifth-generation Oregonian. Although she was born in Santa Monica, California, she’s now living in the same Ashland house that has been in her family for four generations. She spent her childhood playing with clay and attended her first ceramics class when she was 5 years old after her mother sparked her interest.
Dews lived in the Bay Area for about 14 years and studied at the San Francisco Art Institute and the College of Marin. She then went on to set up a ceramics studio.
“In 1992, I bought my first kiln and my first wheel, and I still have the wheel. The kiln I’ve had to replace,” she said.
Dews’ art studies have also included architecture and stone carving in the South of France.
She has also spent time in England, where her family also had a house on the coast between Brighton and Eastbourne for about 55 years.
“I loved England. My work is very much influenced by all the British stories,” Dews said.
During her education, Dews also learned the art of anagama pottery, studying with Hiroshi Ogawa in Elkton, Oregon.
Anagama refers to a single-chamber wood-burning kiln that is long and tunnel-like. It’s used for firing ceramics, originating in ancient China and currently popular in Japan. The name comes from the Japanese words “ana,” meaning “hole or cave,” and “kama,” meaning kiln. Dews started learning the craft about 20 years ago, practicing for 13 years before taking seven years off. Recently, she’s started up again, thanks to new wood kiln in Jacksonville called a train kiln. Such kilns are designed to create a “train” of fire and heat that moves through the kiln, producing dramatic wood ash accumulation and flashing on the ceramic pieces because of the ash and atmospheric firing conditions.
Now she has a studio in Ashland where she teaches her classes. She has pieces for sale in different galleries and has participated in previous art shows put on by the Oregon Art Association and Clay Folk, a group of potters who network and get together for dinners. Dews has also served as Clay Folk president.
Retiring a month ago from her work as a bookkeeper, Dews fully gave her focus to her art. Recently, she debuted her website and gave her studio a makeover.
The craft
Dews said she creates ceramic sculptures that “are inspired by dreams, photographs and life events, animals, plant life, architecture, furniture, landscapes, and also humans.”
Her works cover a similar varied amount of subject matter.
“I’ve made a telephone booth stuffed with people in it,” Dews said. “A little owl is the first piece I ever made. I would really say the main thing is that I had an amazing teacher, so that’s part of it. I feel really lucky, getting started so young is that flow of ideas. And the well of ideas is constantly flowing.”
One of her most recent pieces features a cat on a couch.
“Everybody loves it,” she said.
While clay continues to be her main artistic focus, Dews also sews, knits, crochets, and embroiders.
“Sometimes (other art forms) work their way into my sculpture, but not too often,” Dews said. “Sculpture is prime.”
Debora Gordon is a writer, artist, educator and non-violence activist who recently moved to Ashland from Oakland, California. Email her at [email protected].
