Shanna Fliegel grew up in New Jersey, close to NYC and the Appalachian Trail. This early exposure shaped her love for both urban spaces and the natural environment. After graduating with her BFA from James Madison University in Virginia, Shanna went on to work at artist residencies such as the Cub Creek Foundation, Greenwich House Pottery, and the Archie Bray Foundation. Fliegel’s international travels have brought her to residencies in Denmark, France and Costa Rica, furthering her ceramic research.
Shanna received her MFA in Studio Art from Southern Illinois University and has since taught at a variety of schools including Montana State University in Billings and the Sidwell Friends School in Washington D.C. Shanna lives with her family north of Boston and teaches ceramics at the Governor’s Academy.
My ceramic wall tablets and vessels offer narrative insight, illustrating both personal and universal stories of the human experience within psychological and natural landscapes. How the layered surfaces coalesce create an impression of a story, a blend of poetic memory reminiscent of ancient Sumerian tablets and contemporary urban brick walls tagged with graffiti.
The high contrast, graphic images are created on a thermofax machine, and are positioned next to incised hand drawn lines and loose, ephemeral washes of color. I yearn to process my experience as a human in the world adjacent to both urban and natural landscapes through the simple balance of the loose blooms of underglaze drips with the tight, sharp line quality carved into the clay.
I consider the earthenware wall pieces and vessels act as artifacts, recalling a time past, while the permanence of each fired object reveals the very substance of the Earth – clay itself. Topics in my work such as the Anthropocene call attention to technology, culture and sustainability, while more personal focus on trauma in human relationships and the fragility of memory suggest surreal compositions blending math formulas and other symbols with objects from nature. The viewer is asked to enter each clay canvas; to be curious of what is temporary, beautiful, and build their own story.