Clay Menagerie: An Interview with Patricia Uchill Simons.

The animals that come from Patricia Uchill Simons' potter's wheel are realistic, yet whimsical. Pat says that she has been an artist all her life--and that she's always loved animals. Her first clay tiger, which she made at the age of 5, became part of the permanent collection of the art school in her hometown, Denver.

With a degree in design from the University of Michigan and two master's in ceramics--one from the University of Chicago and the other from the Rhode Island School of Design--Pat lived, taught and made art in various places before settling in Providence, R.I.

In this interview, Pat shares her history as an artist, the evolution of her animal sculptures, and her thoughts on art and teaching.

H.G. Tell us a little about your history as a clay artist.

P.S. Art has always been my life and passion. Even as I got started as a teacher many years ago, I never considered doing anything else. I worked in clay in high school, but it wasn't until later that I decided to do it full-time. I liked clay, but actually studied printmaking as an undergraduate.

I taught junior/senior high school art in Michigan when I first graduated from college, and for the next 10-plus years taught in Chicago, New York and Baltimore. In the early '70s, I moved to Hawaii. I couldn't teach, because, in order to teach in Hawaii, you had to be a resident for three years. So, to keep busy, I joined the Hawaii Potters Guild and earnestly began working in clay.

H.G. Why clay?

P.S. Clay is a medium that requires a long time both to develop the raw skills and discover your own voice. It took many years for me to acquire the mechanical ability to throw so the clay was doing just what I wanted, but even now, it surprises me. At the same time, I needed to learn what glazes and temperatures really do together. When I was teaching in Michigan, I blew up all the students' pots in the kiln because I fired it too fast. I knew then that I needed to learn more about it, if I was going to continue teaching. In trying to learn more to be a better teacher, I became addicted to clay. I love it, because the process is at the same time very delicate and so powerful.

H.G. When did you start making your menagerie of animals?

P.S. I needed to come up with something different for a one-person show I was doing in Hawaii. My son, who was very young at the time, had seen the movie Dr. Doolittle and made a "Push-mepullyou"--the two-headed horse--for the top of a covered jar.

This inspired me to incorporate animals as living parts of the pieces. The first piece was a giraffe whose neck was the handle of a pitcher. It didn't really work well, but it started me down a path.

H.G. Have you been doing the same type of animal sculptures ever since?

P.S. Not really. My work has evolved. When I first started doing animals, I called my work "funk"tional pottery. My unique expression was to incorporate animals into my functional pieces--bellies became bowls, necks became handles, humps became lids. I made camel casserole dishes and toothbrush holders, walrus menorahs and giraffe candlesticks.

I am drawn to animals with exaggerated features--such as the giraffe or the rhinoceros--because of the way that I manipulate the clay. I'm not making the "funk"tional pieces anymore. Now, I strictly make animal sculptures. It took a number of years of creating those functional pieces with the animals as an organic part of the final result before I trusted the animals enough to let them live on their own. Artists often fall into the trap of not wanting to move on to something new--or maybe being afraid to move on to something new--and leave what we know and what sells well behind.

H.G. Your sculptures begin on the wheel as thrown cylinders, don't they?

P.S. Every animal I made came from my wheel. I started with a lump of clay and pulled it up into a cylinder. Then I reshaped each cylinder into a limb or torso and joined them to the others to make a basic animal shape. My most interesting evolution was pioneering this new technique using the throwing process to create the animals themselves, not just the pieces they were adorning.

I found that by paying attention to the drying process, I could deform the basic cylinders I was using to form the legs, arms and torsos of the animals I was creating. This builds the folds of skin and cracks of texture that give the pieces a unique sense of life. My technique has come full circle. I used to throw functional pieces and sculpt animal parts to attach. Then, I used a whole new process. I sculpted directly as part of the throwing process.

The throwing part of the process was turned upside down for me when I developed "tennis elbow." To save my elbow, I've also been using sticks to make cylinders. The sticks make great supports while the piece is setting up. You just have to make sure to wiggle the stick so that the hole remains bigger than the stick while the piece dries and shrinks.

H.G. Tell us about your teaching experience.

P.S. The first chapter of my career was teaching. Before I became a full-time artisan, I taught art at all levels. My teaching experience has included 7th- to 12th-grade art in rural Michigan, a suburban kindergarten in Illinois, and DuSable High School on the South Side of Chicago. I taught art in a junior high school in the Bronx and at DeWitt Clinton, an all-boys high school in the Bronx. In Baltimore, I taught high-school art.

I've done in-service workshops for elementary, junior high and senior high teachers and have taught elementary art in summer sessions in Michigan, Illinois, Maryland, Wisconsin and Hawaii. In Rhode Island, I taught a ceramics course for master's degree candidates. Lately, I've been giving workshops to Potters Guilds through out the country, which I love.

H.G. Why do you think clay is such a good medium for students?

P.S. Everyone loves to play with clay. I have watched all ages go through the same steps when they have their first clay experience--first they make coil snakes, and then they make a snowman out of three balls of clay. Clay is such a good first three-dimensional art experience, because the hands speak directly to the brain and vice versa.

Clay also has rules--discipline--which must be followed initially, as you are learning to work with the medium. For example, there are specific techniques for making a box by joining clay slabs, connecting coils to make a vase and pinching a ball of clay into a bowl. What makes clay so much fun for students of all ages is getting beyond the initial learning--the "how tos"--and then being able to create what is in your head using what you have learned.

Clay is versatile. It can be used to create functional pieces, which appeal to some, or sculptural work, which appeals to others. It's a medium that presents so many possibilities for students who have no confidence in their artistic abilities, and stretches others who are already comfortable with their artistic sense.

H.G. What have you learned from all your varied experience in the classroom?

P.S. The thing I learned the most i from teaching was to respect individual voices. Truly wonderful things can happen when the kids are inspired. Some kids come with natural facility, and others surprise themselves with what they are able to produce. I learned that the most important thing to being an artist professionally is finding that something inside yourself that brings you back to do the work day after day.

Note: Patricia Uchill Simons decorates her animal sculptures with AMACO(R) Velvets and Sahara High Fire Glazes. AMA CO Wax Resist allows her to create the realistic surface decoration.

When I teach workshops to students of any age, I have two goals, regardless of the project. One is to prime the pump--to get my students' creative juices flowing. The other is to impart a love of what I do.

In this lesson, students will be making sleeping animals in their nest. I usually ask them to bring in pictures of the animal they would like to make. But first, we always start with a simple yoga exercise.

I give each student a ball of day. I ask them to put it in their non-dominant hand and place their other thumb on top of the day. I darken the room and take them on a mind's-eye journey through the body. I ask them to focus the energy gathered on the journey into the thumb and feel the clay as they push their thumbs into the clay and slowly enlarge the hole from the inside out, while keeping their eyes closed. I encourage them to keep the opening small and to turn the clay with the other hand. I also talk about all the people before them who have made pinch pots just this way.

1. Make a nest for your creature using a slab of clay that has been flattened with a rolling pin or pounded flat with your hands on a piece of newspaper. Don't worry about removing the newspaper. It can be removed when the clay sets up.

• 2. Hold another lump of clay while we go through the visualization of a sleeping animal. Is it curled up or stretched out? Are the legs close to the body? Are they tucked in? Are the eyes closed tightly? Is one eye peeking out? What about the tail? Is it bushy? Is it long and skinny? Is it tiny? What is the texture of the fur? Try stroking it in your mind. Are the ears still listening for danger, or are they relaxed?
• 3. Talk to students about the technical aspects of joining clay parts by scoring the surfaces and using slip. I prefer a slip that is a mixture of crumbled dry clay moistened with vinegar. Emphasize the need to press the parts together with the slip so that they won't come apart in firing.
• 4. Make four clay coils, which will be the legs. Push chopsticks into the center of the coils to hollow them out, and then remove the chopsticks.
• 5. The body is made like a pinch pot by pushing the thumb through a fat coil.
• 6. The neck is a thin coil.
• 7. The head is a small pinch pot, with ears pulled from the outside.
• 8. For details, use a needle tool fettling knife or Clay Shapers(R). If these are not available, or the students are too young, use a kebob stick or wooden toothpick for cutting the toes for paws, for texture and for defining the eyes and nose.
• 9. Texture (fur, skin, etc.) can be created using a variety of things: forks, driftwood and even lace doilies pressed into the clay make great texture.
• 10. Some students will work quickly and can be encouraged to make a whole family of animals asleep together. Others will concentrate on one and take days to complete it.
• 11. Paint the pieces with underglazes. This can be done while the pieces are wet or after a bisque firing. I like to take the pieces to the highest temperature the clay will allow, because they are less fragile, and the color adheres better.
• 12. Have your students put clear glaze on the eyes and nose before firing. This makes their creatures come alive.
--Patricia Simons