About Dennis Meiners-Ceramic Artist

Dennis Meiners grew up in on a wheat farm in WallaWalla Washington and attended Washington State University in Pullman, where he earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts.

Artist's Statement

“In the past year adventures other than artmaking kept me out of my studio for many months. When I finally made may way back into the studio I found myself at a loss as to what to do, for the first time in more than thirty years of working with clay, and I found the time had come for me to take the advice I’ve always given to my students when they felt uninspired, which is to get the clay out and start making something. It doesn’t matter what it is. Pick up a string and follow it and allow the process to lead.

That seems to be working, however now it appears that I’ve picked up at least two strings that may or may not be pulling my work in similar directions.

One of those directions is the way of functional pottery intended for daily use, which is a direction I’ve always loved, at least when technical problems don’t plague me too much. My lift-up fiber kiln gives me a lush palette of bright glazes that was pretty hard to get used to in the first few firings, but now for the most part I like a lot and have come to look forward to at kiln-opening time.

The other direction is toward semi-functional and sculptural work where I can deal directly with ideas and my feelings about contemporary society. One series has emerged that I'm calling "Homage to Kenny-Boy”, involving lots of upside down houses. Kenny Boy was President Bush's pet name for Enron’s Ken Lay before Mr. Lay became "Ken who?". Another series, one that I’ve looked forward to starting for four years, I’m calling “Death Takes a Vacation”. With the pieces in these series I can talk about all sorts of appalling things I see going on around us, and maybe offer a suggestion or two. I continue to have faith in art's ability to make things a little better. It helps me to have faith in myself.
-
Dennis Meiners 2004