Carleton Alumni Ceramic-Artists to Present Joint Lecture on Their Work

Ceramicists and Carleton College graduates Mel Griffin ’01, Kip O’Krongly ’01 and Kristin Pavelka ’00 will present a joint lecture on their artistic careers post-Carleton and their recent works on Wednesday, April 15 at 3:30 p.m. in the Boliou Hall Auditorium, Room 104. The lecture is entitled “Pursuing a Life in Clay after Carleton” and is free and open to the public.

During the presentation, each artist will trace the paths that their professional lives have taken since graduating from Carleton. They will also discuss the evolution of their individual artistic styles since their undergraduate careers, and time will be allotted for a panel-style question and answer session at the end of the presentation. The Carleton department of art and art history sponsors the event.

Mel Griffin graduated from Carleton with a major in studio art, and is currently a first-year master of fine arts (MFA) student at the University of Minnesota. She filled the space between these two points in her artistic career with a variety of internships, apprenticeships and residencies across the country, applying her training in painting and drawing to the realm of clay arts. Her current works of functional pottery and sculptural ceramics innovatively engage with the concepts of landscape and the relationship between humans and the natural world.

Griffin’s classmate and fellow studio art major Kip O’Krongly also held a wide variety of arts-related positions as a college graduate, from establishing a studio in Seattle to serving as the manager of the clay program at the Pittsburg Center for the Arts. She returned to Minnesota in 2008, and is currently a resident artist at the Northern Clay Studio. Griffin creates “animated” functional works, emphasizing the gestural angles and jaunty joints of her pieces. She has recently been experimenting with low-fire clay to create works that explore the complicated relationship between food production, transportation and energy use.

Kristen Pavelka’s artistic trajectory varies slightly from those of her class of 2001 companions.  Upon graduation from Carleton, she went on to graduate study, earning her MFA from Penn State University in 2004. She has exhibited her works, which she calls “candy-like” for their whimsical forms and colorful glazes, at galleries across the country. Her pieces often reflect both the food that they will hold and the “poked and pinched” nature of their construction.  Pavelka is currently a visiting assistant professor in ceramics at Hamline University.

For information about the event, including disability accommodations, contact Patt Germann at (507) 222-4341 or pgermann@carleton.edu.