IlenaLeePottery

I come from a trailer park at the end of the road in Alaska - the last frontier. Now every place I go is moving backwards. I travel through history and pick up artifacts and make as-of-yet-unseen things out of mud and rust.

What I do: I garden, keep bees, cook, make a home, am a good friend, I am handy, I buy and sell antique and vintage tools, repurpose rusty stuff, make pottery, design for theatre and dance, I write, edit and journal. I am a constantly improving lover. I love lists.

My recipe: moist junk skin trash punk lust recycled art earthy people rocks naked dirt rust mud -- measure into crumpled newsprint; smooth it over with a swish of a boar bristle brush. finish it with a pinch of good salt for an elegant meal.

When I was young someone asked me what I wanted to do when I grew up - I said “to live creatively”. I am still trying to figure out what I meant by that. I have been an artist all of my life. I have studied ballet in Russia during Perestroika, and pottery in the mountains of Mexico, made a play off broadway, received my degree in Alaska, and pulled pints down under. I am a theatre artist, a bartender, a traveler, a writer, a survivor and a witch. Most importantly I am a dedicated homemaker, partner, auntie and friend.

My pottery is meant to be touched. I hope it reminds the holder that it was once liquid, and that everything, including us, is holding a place somewhere between permanence and impermanence. At any moment we can slip back into the elements that we are made from.