I am really proud of presenting Kelly Thiel in this Stories Must Be Shared series. Kelly and I met in 2010 as part of an online course and since then we became friends, online friends that are willing to meet in person one day. I am very proud of her ceramic work. She has inspired me in ways she doesn’t even know. She has been a constant supporter on all my online projects and she does it with joy and an open heart. I am very happy to share her story and her work….Enjoy!!

Her Story..in her own words

Here is a story about a mom. My mom. My best friend in the whole wide world. When I was a kid, she did the normal mom things, like cooking dinner and making us brush our teeth, but she also did other things. She taught me to grow vegetables in the garden, and how to cut the asparagus when it was ready. I still see her squatting down with that old steak knife, surveying the asparagus stalks. She taught me that in order to eat a healthy meal, there needed to be a lot of color on your plate. She also taught me to have a lot of color in my life! She showed me how to live openly, be yourself, and that home was your safe place. She also taught me to break the rules sometimes, and just have fun. I remember one day in middle school, she checked me out of school, and told me we were taking a road trip to the beach. We stopped for a dozen glazed doughnuts and then headed for a distant beach in our old ratty convertible car. It was one of the best days of my life.

Fast forward a few years. I’m out of college and my mom and I are still very close. We speak on the phone every day, even though she lives in a different city. My then-boyfriend (soon to be husband) and I decided to move to Charleston, SC, and 6 months later, my mom also moved to Charleston. While I was worried about the close proximity, it turned out to be one of the best things that had ever happened.

My mother had done a lot of oil painting when I was younger, but it had been so long since she had picked up a brush. I had the thought to get her a gift for Christmas – real painting lessons. When I told her about it, she paused, and said, “you know, I think I’d rather take a pottery class”. And then I paused, and said, “Wow, that sounds cool, can I take it with you???” And that it was it!! We never looked back. Our pottery class turned out to be not so great, on the teaching side of things, but it was enough to get us hooked on clay. It wasn’t long before we purchased a wheel, then two wheels, and then a kiln and a slab-roller. Oh man, we were in business!!! It didn’t matter how cold or how hot it was, or how many mosquitos bit us while we were throwing (since our “studio” was in an unheated building outside) we made pots. And we made more pots. We made pots until we were overflowing with pottery, and then it was time to sell. We started doing retail shows together all the time. We traveled to different states, stayed in a variety of hotels, doing lots of good and bad shows. Each one is a precious, precious memory.

Then, all of a sudden, things changed. We were driving to a show in Florida in early 2008, and my mom got confused on the road. She didn’t know how to drive, or how to handle the fork in the road. I knew then, that something was very, very wrong. Not long after that, she was diagnosed with cancer. Stage 4, in the lungs and in the brain. The tumors, all 40+ of them, are what caused her to forget how to drive that day. I was 5 months pregnant with my first daughter.

10 months later, my mom passed away. I had a 5 month old baby, and I struggled each day. I went through the blackest time in my life. When I should have been celebrating life, I was struggling with death and depression. I stopped doing anything creative whatsoever, and just tried to make it through each day.

When I ever so slowly began to come out of my fog, I knew that I was almost ready to go back to the studio. I also knew that my pottery work was going to change dramatically. Hugely. Finally, the day came when I was ready to try it. I sat down at my work table and let my hands just sort of play. And birds came out! This was good; it felt right. I kept making birds, and then I realized how I could manipulate them to show emotion and concept, and I could use birds to express everything that had happened in my heart.

I never went back to my wheel. I still have my wheel though, and I will use it when friends want to play, or if my daughters want to try it. But I am done throwing. It doesn’t suit my patience anymore. It feels better to slap, squeeze, and squish the clay into forms that I want. I work intuitively sometimes, other times I have a sketch I use.

I started making bird sculptures, and I felt a tiny release each time. Sometimes I cried while I worked, and other times it made my heart happy, but it was what I needed. All of it. So I started focusing on my sculpture alone.

Letting go of all the functional pottery I had made in the past. It was done.

That was 4 years ago. I’m still loving my sculpture process, and my birds. I am excited each time I get to go to my studio and be with them. So now, looking back on that time in my life, it’s no exaggeration to say that it was THE life-changer of my life. All I once, I became an orphan, a mother, and a sculptor.

Thank you for reading my story.

Kelly

I’m so proud to share some of her stunning work:

Hanging Soul

Lift

Balance

Artist Statement:
My narrative sculptures are an expression of the deep sorrow, delirious joy and tumult I’ve experienced thus far in my life. Flight, by all its definitions, connotations, and implications is a flying away from; a rising to; an escape and a release; an expression of desperation and joy. Emotions beat inside me on wings on anguish and fear, but also on wings of happiness and love. I am hopefully able to release all that I carry inside me, bird by bird, one small release at a time.

About Kelly Thiel (Her Bio):

Kelly found clay in 1999. Interested in all things creative, she grew up with an artistic mother on a small farm in rural Georgia, where she developed her love of playing in the mud. Those formative years influenced her greatly, and since then, she has always been involved in the arts.

A couple of years after graduating from Virginia Tech, Kelly moved to Charleston, SC and began working in clay. She traveled around the country to study with different artists, like Tom Coleman and Lisa Clague, to further her knowledge of the material. She has shown her award-winning work in regional and national exhibitions, and currently participates with the American Craft Council retail shows each year. Several of her sculptures were also included in the Art Buzz, Collection 2008 and 2011, which is an art book, deidcated to the visual arts. Kelly has also recently expanded to offer her pieces in bronze.

With a studio on John’s Island, SC Kelly is able to stay connected with the natural environment and has a view of pastures and a pond, with many trees and birds.

Kelly is married with two young daughters, who have already attended many art shows and exhibits in their short lives. Information: Phone: 843.437.4914 www.kellythielstudio.com kelly@kellythielstudio.com

I am sure that you adored meeting Kelly Thiel. You can follow her and her stunning work at www.kellythielstudio.com.

Stay tuned for more amazing stories in the next weeks.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving Day and Enjoy the rest of the week!!

With LoVe,

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 21st, 2012 at 7:57 am and is filed under Sharing Simple Things. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.