Lithic Ceramics is me, Sylla McClellan. I've been working with clay since 2015. I've taken courses at Radius Community Art Studios, Pacific Northwest College of Art, Portland Community College and Oregon College of Arts and Crafts (rip). I work mostly in my garden studio in McMinnville, Oregon and sometimes in my shed studio in Marfa, Texas. Early in 2023 I made a decision to focus more of my time on my creative ventures, especially clay. Ceramics isn’t really a portable art form. I like to travel and I wasn’t going to travel with my wheel, kiln, 25lb bag of clay.
In March 2023 I participated in an artist residency in Silver City, NM. I brought 75lbs of clay, some tools, a set of watercolors and colored pencils and paper. While there, I started making little drawings of the plants and architectural elements I was seeing (so different from the Pacific Northwest).
A few months before, I had finished making wall tiles for my kitchen. It was a project. My studio is small, and so is my kiln. I had to learn how to use the space efficiently to let the tile dry out without warping, to have multiple slabs rolled out at once, etc. I found that I really enjoyed the process of creating these tiles. In New Mexico, I knew I would be hand-building, but I thought I’d be focusing on patterns and texture (an ongoing interest). Instead, I started drawing some of the plants I saw on slabs of clay. This evolved to wall tiles of flora and fauna, but also of the fun and joyful scenes in life.I spent the summer in Marfa, Texas where I arranged a small studio in our back shed. I worked early in the morning before it got too hot and set up an old kiln on a slab in the yard. I continued with making wall tiles. Again, finding interesting ideas in the surroundings.I’ll continue making these tiles and some small hand-built bowls and cups. I enjoy the wheel, but the process of hand-building I find much more fulfilling. I hope you find yourself smiling a bit (internally or externally!) when you see these tiles. A little reminder that there are still sweet moments out there. I can be reached at lithicceramicspdx at gmail . com.

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