Melissa Turner

ARTIST STATEMENT

In making art, as in any language, we strive to find a way to understand our environmentand to connect through our experience. Interpretation becomes the focus of an idea.Through inquiry, a series of conflicts arise and choices are made that dictate formal results. Resolution is difficult when endless other options lie as unused raw material.I do not set out to produce a particular piece. It is from within the ongoing process of examination that the art object truly emerges. It is the rare and exquisite result of an intense interaction with one’s deepest interests.

Most recently I have been pursuing ideas about proximity and influence. Mine are varied ideas involving abstraction and identification. I wonder about how things can be distilled, or brought to their most basic, even minimal, form while remaining intimately and evocatively identifiable, not so much as objects, but as visceral images, recognizable in everything that is.

I choose to use clay because of its softness and versatility. Malleable in its wet stage, accommodating to the human hand, and instantly responsive to the slightest impression, it is uniquely suited for tactile manipulation. Once fired, it has the strength and integrity of stone.

EDUCATION

1996 MFA Cranbrook Academy of Art, Bloomfield Hills, MI

1982 BFA New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University, Alfred, NY

1978-80 New England College, Henniker, NH

CONTINUING EDUCATION

2007-2008 New Hampshire Institute of Arts Ceramics Studies

2002-2006 Sanctuary Arts Eliot, ME Figure Drawing and Sculpture Studies

2000-2002 New Hampshire Institute of Art, Manchester, NH Figure Drawing Studies

1987 School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA

1983 Omaha Brickworks Workshop, Omaha, NE1979 Somerset County College, Somerville, NJ

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

2002-2006 Sanctuary Arts, Eliot, MEAdjunct FacultyCeramic Handbuilding Classes

1996-1997 Massachusetts College of Art, Boston, MACeramic Studio Manager

1996 Center for Creative Studies, Detroit, MIAdjunct Faculty, Ceramics Dept.

1984- 2011 mturnerclayart, Newmarket, NHPrivate studio, fully equipped: gas, electric, soda kilnsPrivate or group lessons ongoing

AWARDS

2006 Spotlight on The Arts – Best Sculptor Award

EXHIBITIONS

NH Art Association Juried Exhibition – Currier Museum of Art - 2011NH Art Association New Member’s Exhibition – 2011