A fire in the snow: Visiting alumnus helps with kiln

“Baby, it’s cold outside,” but not too cold for the University of South Dakota ceramics students and visiting alumnus artist Johnne Law McMahan.

With guidance from Law McMahan, students fired up a recently-completed, wood-fired ceramics kiln they designed and constructed outside of the Warren M. Lee Center for Fine Arts. It has been a year-long research project led by Chase Lilliholm, a ceramics Bachelor of Fine Arts graduate, and Nick Sperry, a Bachelor of Arts German graduate.

Community is a big part of a ceramics artist’s life, and the wood-firing process is labor intensive — starting with designing the kiln, gathering the brick and steel materials for building the kiln and finding resources for the wood needed to fire the kiln.

The firing process requires a team of people to split the wood, load the kiln with the artwork and stoke the fire in the kiln for three to five days.

During his presentation Nov. 12, Law McMahan said he missed the intensive, collaborative, energy-generating process involved with wood-fired ceramics. He has enjoyed returning as a visiting artist to share his recent experiences, to work with students and to participate in the ceramics department’s continuing research.

Law McMahan exemplifies one of the many paths an artist can take after earning their degree. Some artists choose graduate school, and others choose to be working artists, making and promoting their work in galleries or art fairs, while some complete artist residencies. Others, like Law McMahan, seek out apprenticeships with professional artists.

This commitment to practice and spirit led Law McMahan to central Minnesota for a 15-month apprenticeship with a studio ceramicist. The experience opened up unexpected opportunities, leading him to an emerging artist career, development grant and the opportunity to present his research in Denmark at the second European Woodfire Conference.

This semester, the Art Department’s Visiting Artist Program has been rich with inspiring presentations and workshops, ranging from working artists to art historians. It has given us opportunities to meet professional artists from all over the country.

The artists have generously shared their knowledge and research, their diverse working styles and processes and their backgrounds and lifestyles, giving us a glimpse of the possibilities available for careers in our field.

Thank you to all of the artists who travel to USD — we value your time. And thank you to the Art Department faculty for providing the Visiting Artist Program. I look forward to learning more from visiting artists next semester.

(Photo: Visiting alumnus artist Johnne Law McMahan helped University of South Dakota students fire and load artwork into a kiln Nov. 12. Submitted Photo / The Volante)