Working in ‘American’ Raku, Barbara Harnack creates magical one-of-a-kind sculptures, bringing to life the character of people everywhere. She also makes Raku vases with her husband, Michael Lancaster. Raku, meaning spontaneous dance’ is a tea ceremony name dating to the sixteenth century. The works are pulled red hot from the kiln and placed in a barrel of straw, and then, working with the fire, Barbara and her husband continue moving the work in the fire until completed. My work has been a dialogue between a sense of humor and our own ‘divinity’ as human beings. “When I was a girl, I studied with a wonderful puppet maker named Madame Sorrell. I never got over the experience of creating ‘living
beings’ from nothing. As a result my
artwork has been a study of character from dark to light. Influences include Marc Chagall, Beatrice Wood, William Steig, antique toys, folk art, and the many moments I have delighted in
Children’s artwork.”

 

 

 

Face
16.5"H

Dancers
20"h x 19"w
x 13"d
Collaborative Vase
Harnack
& Lancaster
7"h

Collaborative Vase
Harnack
& Lancaster
14"h

 
Button
26"h x 17"w
x 7"d
Wall Relief
Female Face
20.5"h x16.5"w
x 6.5"d
Vessel
20.5"h x 19.5"w
x 13"d
Untitled Male
Relief 2
20.5"h x19.5"w
x 7.5"d
Untitled Male
Relief
21.5"h x 19"w
x 8"d
     
 
 


After 30 years of working in clay, I
have reinvented myself, as clay and fire has reinvented me. Although I owe my roots to traditional pottery making andapprenticeship, I awoke one day to the desire to take a bow saw to my thrown work, to take it apart and reassemble it. In this exercise I discovered that my art can represent transformation.That in us all, we have the ability to reassemble ourselves, thus recreating a new expression from an ‘old vessel’. I expect my ‘new work’ to be at once recognizable and yet to cause the viewer to question. It is my intention to invoke questioning, but not to disturb the origins of pottery making. I use Raku as a force and technique of firing because of its spontaneity, and because it adds an element of old and new. My forms are inspired by industrial architecture andby primitive dwellings. Influences Include, Don Reitz, Val Cushing, Willem deKooning, Chojiro, Peter Voulkus and Mark di Suvero.

 
Split Canister
7.5"h x 12"w
x 12"d
Sliced Disc with
Cylinder
13"h
Relic
12"h x 19"w x 13"d
Push Pull
11"h x12"w x 19"d
Logs Split Can
8.5"h x15.5"w
x 12"d
Spiral
14.5"h x18.5"w
x 16.5"d
Group of Dwellings
7"-9"h
Habitat 07
7"h
Larger Dwelling Large Dwelling
14"h
   
 
 


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