Allie Stack, artist
By Gina Malone
Ceramic artist Allie Stack creates her whimsical pottery with community in mind. “Nothing fills me with joy more than cooking for the people I love, and using handmade pottery makes those moments all the more special,” she says. “I want my work to portray that to the user; it’s meant to be approachable and fun to use, whether that’s serving a meal on a dish, spending your afternoon putting plants into planters or arranging flowers in vases.”
Allie Stack, artist
Stack grew up in Connecticut and knew early on that art was the path for her. In high school, she threw herself into painting and photography. She did take ceramics classes at school and at a community arts center, but it wasn’t until her first semester at the Maine College of Art that she knew that she was passionate about ceramics. After graduation from the College of Art in 2016, she moved to Minneapolis and worked for a year at the Northern Clay Center. At the end of that time, she moved to Asheville with partner and fellow ceramic artist Gillan Doty, and found Odyssey Gallery of Ceramic Arts, where she worked as a studio assistant and is now a member.
Her surroundings and what is going on in her daily life influence the work that she creates. “For example, in the summer I tend to paint vegetables that I am currently eating or excited about cooking,” she says. “My parents were avid gardeners and my mom was a great cook, so I grew up appreciating and loving fresh veggies and cooking.”
Allie Stack, artist
Printmaking and metalsmithing are also favorite ways of creating, and both influence the pottery that Stack makes. “I make my work out of a red clay body that I fire to a mid-range temperature,” she says. “After making my pieces, I dip or brush them into a bright-white slip that I then paint illustrations on top of with brightly colored underglazes. After that dries I carve through each piece to create an outline around my drawings. These then go into the bisque/first firing and then I paint over the carved lines with a black wash and wipe it away to reveal inlaid black lines. This results in creating more depth in the surface and making my illustrations stand out. Each piece then gets dipped or painted with clear glaze before the final firing.”
The shapes of her works and the designs that grace them have a “whimsical and loose quality,” she says. “I try to leave evidence of the fingerprint, which I find gives the user more connection to me as an artist.” The ideas of connectiveness and community that go into her work became even more poignant after Hurricane Helene. “Our solace was being with our friends and sharing meals,” she says.
Allie Stack, artist
She and Doty were both working in Southside Studios before the hurricane. “In the lead-up to Hurricane Helene we prepared our studio by moving things up on tables or into the lofted area of the studio,” Stack says. “I had just gotten a brand new electric kiln (my first kiln) and we took it apart and put it in our Subaru (thinking that we were being overly cautious) along with a few other items that we could fit. At that time we knew there would be flooding, but we never could have imagined that the water would flood so high up that our building was almost completely underwater.”
Although they lost everything from the studio that they were not able to take away in the car, she feels fortunate that they did not lose their home or any loved ones. The couple was offered a two-month visiting artist residency at the Archie Bray Foundation for Ceramic Arts in Helena, MT, and a one-month visiting artist residency at the Clay Studio in Philadelphia. “These opportunities helped us when we didn’t have a place to create work, offering us a much needed reprieve from Asheville, and gave us once-in-a-lifetime experiences,” Stack says. “Words can’t explain how grateful we are.” The duo is now creating in new studio space at FirePink Clay Collective, in Alexander.
Find Allie Stack’s work at Odyssey Gallery of Ceramic Arts, 238 Clingman Avenue Extension, in Asheville’s River Arts District. Learn more at AllieStackCeramics.com and OdysseyGalleryofCeramicArts.com, and on Instagram @allie.stack and @odysseygalleryofceramicarts.
