Brenda McMahon: biographical study

Brenad McMahon

The creation of ceramics is a form of art that some describe as an art and some a craft, though how this is applied may depend on the nature of the work under discussion and the degree of artistry with which it has been designed, assuming the distinction needs to be made at all. Barbara McMahon is a noted ceramic artist who works at her studio in Greenwich, New York. She is also noted as a teacher who guides others in how to express themselves through ceramics.

Brenda McMahon is known nationally as a ceramic artist. She owns and operates Blue Moon Clay Studio, located along the Hudson River just east of Saratoga Springs, and there she creates her fine, burnished porcelain vessels by hand on the potter's wheel before using raw clay to roll out her tiles. She then fires both in her outdoor gas kiln ("Brenda McMahon" para. 1).

The study of art in different media is important to understanding the shaping of a specific craft like ceramics. For one thing, an understanding of a broad range of types and media of artistic expression helps develop an aesthetic sense that understands design and the relationship of one element in a design to others. It becomes possible then not only to see the parts and how they fit into the whole, it is also possible to see how the whole fits into broader traditions both historic and aesthetic. The individual can begin to see relationships extending outside the work of art itself, and these relationships also help to explain the work of art and link it to other expressions in other media.

This is important as a way of getting at the underlying structures of all human expression that make some such expression art. Art has a wide appeal and conveys ideas about a culture and a people through their ability to shape certain materials into a design that has meaning. Every ceramic is a design, whether good or bad, and that design says something about the person who made it, the society in which they live, and the art they know and have absorbed in some fashion into their lives and their work. Art may be concrete, abstract, representational, or impressionistic, but all conform to some aesthetic principles that derive from all that has gone before, from the materials used, from the audience for which the work is created, and from the background of the individual artist. Not all of these elements are readily apparent, but close study can uncover many of them and add to the understanding of the work, just as close study of one type of art can bring an understanding to an examination of other types of art. So does a study of the art of painting and sculpture contribute to an understanding of the art of ceramic design.

McMahon is noted for her saggar-fired porcelain artworks merging primitive pit firing with a Japanese aesthetic. She does not use glazes as might be expected but instead experiments with natural materials and the random markings of fire upon earth. To this end, she surrounds her porcelain forms with a variety of organic materials in the firing chamber, a process that produces an extensive combination of smoky blacks and grays, creating a fumed palette of orange, salmon, pink, and burgundy. Each firing in the kiln illuminates surprising patterns on the surfaces of her pots. "fire paintings" that are one of a kind and appealing to those who are attracted by the unknown (the Artful Home paras. 2-3).

McMahon went to Manhattan's Hunter College and received a Master of Arts from SUNY Albany (State University of New York at Albany). She had grown up in the greater New York City area, in a modest brick house along the beaches of the Atlantic Ocean at Rockaway Beach: "My earliest memories are of sand, water and salt air; at night, as I gazed out from the front porch, I saw a shimmering black skyline, not that of Manhattan, but the vast expanse of the moonlit ocean" ("Biography" para. 1).

She believes that this experience can be seen in her work and that the place where she lives is thus formative for her: "I form soft earth into subtle polished vessels among the rolling hills of upstate New York. Instead of using glazes, I experiment with natural materials, polished porcelain and the random markings of fire upon earth. Like the unpredictability of waves chasing the shoreline, each firing yields surprising results upon the surface of my pots, never are two alike" ("Biography" para. 2).

She also notes how she had worked in broadcasting for ten years before turning to ceramics. She had studied at the Arts Center of the Capital Region in Troy, New York and learned from several experienced potters, though she has also called her training self-taught, though she also notes the many influences that have helped shape her approach to her art. She cites the teachers who encouraged her to continue and her friend John Visser, who worked in ceramics himself for thirty years. As she notes, "This I know: I love unglazed work, simple and strong forms and a quiet meditative aesthetic. From there I expand and explore. Lately it's celebratory figurative, carved vessels and fire paintings upon a tile canvas" ("Biography" para. 4).

The Japanese influence comes from her exposure to exhibitions of Japanese ceramics, such as the tea services that form may such collections. Many of these collections were extensive and would form an important source of wealth in some periods. Historians have observed the objects themselves as well as accounts by various visitors and others who were present during these different eras and who wrote about the art produced and its special meaning. One account by a Jesuit priest named Luis d'Almeida from the sixteenth century notes how the nobles liked to show visitors their collection as a sign of esteem, with the utensils themselves being used in the drinking of a powdered herb called cha. These utensils also were the subject of many stories and legends which only added tom their prestige (Munsterberg 32). These utensils also had names as part of their collections, and the names were taken from their shapes, their markings, their glazes, or one of their owners. Munsterberg cites one famous tea caddy called the Kyoguku Bunrin Cha-ire, meaning "the apple-shaped tea caddy owned by Lord Kyoguku" (Munsterberg 33). The value of many of these pieces was legendary in the sixteenth century, at a time when "the rise of the tea ceremony created a great demand for fine old tea caddies, tea bowls, and other utensils required for it" (Munsterberg 33). Many of the finest pieces were actually imported from China or Korea, but others were made by master Japanese potters. Many have since been handed down through families over many generations to be considered priceless heirlooms or national treasures.

McMahon has received numerous wards for her work, beginning with the Juror's Choice at the WMHT Public Television Art Auction in 2003. she has also received awards from the Glastonbury Art Show, the Berkshire Art Festival, the Bruce Museum Craft Festival, the 57th Street Art Fair, the Beaux Art Festival in Florida, the Deland Museum Art Festival (also in Florida), an Independent Artist Grant from the New York State Foundation for the Arts, the SOS Grant International Exhibition in Thailand, the Longboat Key Fine Art Festival in Florida, and the Winterpark Art Festival in Florida ("Biography" para. 5).

McMahon is a leader in the art world in Washington County and joined with artist Serena Kovalosky. McMahon had earlier organized the Pottery Trail as a tour of upstate ceramic artists, and she entered into a new project with an Open Studios Tour for the Professional Artists of Washington County:

As the two women see it, the idea is a celebration of all the arts and agriculture that takes place here. Simply said, the fine arts, performing arts and culinary arts. "The three arts represent a profound trinity here in Washington County," McMahon says, "our goal is to expand and underscore that in this beautiful rural community." The performing arts seem to have a home and the culinary arts seem to be represented by the local food movement, the farmers markets and the slow food movement, but the visual artists were the only ones who were not represented. In 2005 Kovalosky and McMahon decided to join forces and expertise and thus the seed was planted for the Open Studios Tour: A celebration of the Fine and Cultural Arts of Washington County. ("Press Release" para. 2)

Such tours are in keeping with McMahon's efforts to promote the arts in the region as well as in her classes for other artists.

Many of her works are elaborate and show an artistic flair as she makes common objects with a more powerful sense of form, often echoing shapes from nature, as in her "Curly Nature Jar":

This work shows clearly the way the use of organic materials in the firing chamber adds to the surprising design on the ceramic, a design that here mimics the designs seen in marble and other stones, the organic shape on the lid adds to the sense of nature captured for a time in the form of this jar. The work was wheel thrown and hand burnished, and the handle is a curly willow design. The vary9ing patterns on the jar are creatd by Saggar firing, described above ("Curly Nature Jar" para. 1).

Her "Ceramic Vase" is a thirteen-inch hand throwjn porcelain vase fired using the Saggar technique, the method that combines the traditions of North American pit firing with the simplicity of the Japanese aesthetic.

The work has two layers. The first is the soft, satin surface resulting from an ancient process called burnishing, and the vase was burnished in the "leather hard" stage with a river stone. The method uses slow, steady rubbing to unify the clay particles and to compress them. As this is done, the smallest particles rise to the surface and create a tight sheen that resembles a matt glaze. After burnishing, the ceramic vase is bisque fired and prepared for the saggar kiln. The second layer comes from the saggar firing of this ceramic vase, which is wrapped in a variety of organic material, such as sawdust, grasses, hay, corn husk, seaweed, and wire. No glaze is brushed or applied to the surface of the vessel, so the natural materials work together in the alchemic firing process, some to provide combustion, some to provide mineral content.

As the saggar kiln heats up, the materials burn away so that a soft vapor fume appears on the surface of the ceramic vessel. Before the firing, the vessel started off white, which is the color of porcelain, and after the firing, the surface is smoky. Saggar fired ceramic vases are not water tight and are not designed to hold water, but the soft, warm colors provide a beautiful natural surface that blends nicely into any home ("Ceramic Vase" paras. 1-4).