Allyson Conn

I am a ceramic artist whose work is rooted in my connection to the Appalachian landscape and my physical experience growing up surrounded by the foothills I call home. Rather than explicitly recreating the landscape in which I am familiar, I use clay to explore what it feels like to exist within it. I first found clay in the hillside beside my family's cabin as a child. The fascination and tactility of the material that I found came to shape me as an artist. The relationship that I formed in those first moments with clay continues to drive my practice today. I am reminded of this first encounter each time I push, pull, or stretch — shaping my clay the way my environment shaped me. From there, atmospheric firing extends my mark of process by

allowing flame to alter and create dynamic surfaces. This continuous evolution in form and surface is a reflection of my evolving identity and relationship to the land.

In my sculptural work, bulbous forms, negative spaces, and allusions of function reference the experience of being surrounded and enclosed. My functional work approaches the landscape more quietly through smooth, uninterrupted forms and atmospheric surfaces that ask my viewer to recall the colors of rock faces and cliffsides. Across both, I allow the clay to remain recognizable rather than disguising it. Each piece carries the energy of my first encounter with clay, holding evidence of both place and process and of an environment that shaped me and a material that continues to be shaped by me.