artist's statement

I suppose if you've come here, you might have some questions.

a list of influences:

I use a variety of media in my work. I took my degrees in Ceramics, and I still use clay as an element in the sculpture. Mostly ceramics teaches me, in a microcosm, about experience and its effects on materials. Clay is almost as much of a time-based material as film. There's the same element of chance, when your art is taken away and then brought back transformed. Layering on layers of pigment and stains on the surfaces, and wiping them back creates an archeology for a one-woman culture.

People usually wonder about the books. Its part of an on-going "narrative" built of single phrases and sentences discovered in chance-found books to relate to previous found books. Its a story within a story, the outside story being the one where you discover secret messages encoded in dumpy cast-off hardbacks found one at a time in thrift stores for $1. It doesn't matter about the year the book was printed, & it doesn't matter what order you find them in. What matters is that you are recieving the message, as one line relates to the next. It never seems to end

In my case, the story is about the map of the sky, how it was lost, and how it can be retrieved or reconstructed.

Some days. On other days, the story is about something else.

Right at this minute I am working in clay on a series of pendulum forms. I never ever meant to make more than three because I hate "motifs", but I keep getting new ideas for variations on the theme, so I guess its not done with me yet. These are large, usually 36" in length and 24" in diameter. Watch for new images, as I finish the new stuff. Shouldn't be long now.
Michelle P. Kern
September, 1999

curriculum vita
Born: October 12, 1970
Daly City, CA

Education: 1997, Master of Fine Arts, California College of Arts and Crafts, Oakland
1995, Bachelor of Fine Arts, California College of Arts and Crafts, Oakland
1989-1992, College of San Mateo, CA
1988-1989, San Diego State University, CA

Exhibition History:

1998 More Than Clay, Richmond Art Center, Richmond, CA

1997 Pro Arts Juried Annual, Pro Arts Gallery, Oakland, Ca
Ceramic Still Life: The Common Object, Oliver Art Center, Oakland, Ca
Toki Gallery, Oakland
Retrofit, Beta Building, San Francisco, Ca
MFA exhibition, "Pulling Up The Sky", Oliver Art Center, Oakland

1996 TextconText Arts Benecia Center Gallery, Benecia, Ca
perpetua hieroglyphica Door 3 Gallery, Oakland, Ca
Collaborations Irwin Student Center, CCAC, Oakland, Ca
22 Artists at 65 Capp 65 Capp St, San Francisco, CA
Four Rooms Door 3 Gallery, Oakland, Ca
Mimesis Door 3 Gallery, Oakland, Ca

1995 Introduction Show Door 3 Gallery, Oakland, Ca
Not Dishwasher Safe Irwin Student Center, CCAC, Oakland, Ca

Solo Show

1995 Conversations With the Great Architect IPW Gallery, CCAC, Oakland, CA

Employment History:

1999 Ceramics Studio Technician, Richmond Art Center, CA
Ceramics Teacher, Pre-College Program, CCAC, Oakland, CA
1998 Ceramics Studio Manager, CCAC, Oakland, CA
1997 Ceramics Teaching Assistant, California State Summer School for the Arts
CalArts, Valencia, CA
1996 Graduate Teaching Assistant, Ceramics, CCAC, CA
Ceramics Teaching Assistant, California State Summer School for the Arts
CalArts, Valencia, CA
1995 Ceramics Teacher, Summer Enrichment Program, Crystal Springs Uplands School
Hillsborough, CA

Other Activities:

1998 Lecture "The sought & found object", with sculptor Michael Prendergast
College of San Mateo, CA

1996-Present Member of arts collective cricket engine, Oakland, CA

new work (1999-2001):::work from 1997-1998::: work from1998-1999:::works-in-progress:::::artist's statement & CV:::misc. writings:::links 1