ANNE MARIE WERNER-SMITH

Village of Saints

Dear Gallery Visitors,

Art for me happens when the mind, heart, spirit and training come together to produce something that has never existed before. It comes from my creative side which for me has always been a connection to my spiritual side, to my beliefs and values. I never feel like I am truly alive unless I am involved in some form of creative self-expression.

The pottery which I exhibit at Tomé Gallery includes FOUNTAINS,

porcelain and lace plates,

GARDEN FROGS (like my friend here)

and TURTLES and sculptures of several different Saints such as St. Francis, St. Claire, San Pasqual, St. Celia, and St. Francis Xavier.

I plan on developing designs for more as the requests come in. I use many different clay bodies when I create the different Santos and pieces, but all are high-fire indoor-outdoor clays so that all of the items can be in the garden year round or kept indoors. St. Francis was my father's favorite saint, in fact his middle name was Francis, so I knew he would like a statue of that particular saint. I gave him the very first one I made. My parents kept it in the kitchen area and my father said he felt as if the statute spoke to him every morning as he ate his breakfast. He was half kidding when he said that, but many people have said similar things to me and I guess it is true. The process of making the statues is very meditative and spiritual. I don't mass produce, but make each one individually and separately. I started doing pottery when I was living and teaching in London in the early 70's. I remember I loved working with clay, sand and paints my entire life, but never stopped to get trained in the art. I worked for a year with a teacher at a local Polytechnic Institute. After that I lived in Munich, Germany for 6 years where, in addition to my teaching, I worked with a local artisan who had a studio and gallery. The clay and glazes and techniques were different but the results were very beautiful and thrilling. After that I moved to Kenya, East Africa where I taught English in a high school. The local clay was gritty and rough, but I used it in my classroom to encourage creative writing and story telling. The results were not so much good pottery, but great stories and good essays. Still my passion for pottery was alive and well. I took safaris into the mountainous areas where the most well-known East African earthen pots used for grains and water storage and also for cooking are hand made by local village women. We got to know each other and some of them showed me how they dug the clay and processed it, used tools made from plants for the forming of the pots and who they fired in open pits.

When I returned to the U.S. in the mid 80's I was busy in graduate school and it seemed pottery was put further and further in the background as I lent rny creative talents to writing for professional purposes. l came to New Mexico in 1991 to get my doctoral degree in multi-cultural education. But the whole time, I longed to get back to the clay and drawing and writing. Since 1996,1 have been teaching part-time at UNM and in 1997 my husband and I moved to Bosque Farms, New Mexico.

And it was here that a new opportunity presented itself. Tome Gallery. We stopped by one day after Christmas looking for decorations for our new house, and I found not just a gallery, but Jan Pacific's studio. I joined the Saturday morning class and after 15 years away from clay work, I slowly began to experiment and revisit forms and structures and techniques from Europe and Africa. The clay felt so good! I would often stay the entire day, lost in the work. I had found another artistic home. Still, I was looking for something new as well. While strolling through Old Town in Albuquerque one day I noticed a gallery with a studio and I got to know the proprietor, Carla Estevane who now runs the Patio Gallery. It was Carla who mentored me in the art of stoneware Santos and fountains. I worked with her for 2 years. It was a productive collaboration that was the basis for the development of my own version of several of her designs.

It is important to me to keep a balance between my professional, often very cerebral life, and my creative expression. I spend hours in silence working on my different pieces, especially the Santos.

I display my work in several locations besides Tome Gallery. I have them in a popular local restaurant in Los Lunas, Sopas; at St. John's Cathedral in Albuquerque and at the Christ in the Desert Monastery. I do some shows at Christmas time as well.

For the last 2 years my husband and I have rekindled my relationship with Kenya and the Anglican Church in East Africa. We sponsor the education of 2 women there and I have held "High Tea" fundraisers at our church in Albuquerque and at my home selling the pottery for the scholarship fund.

In 2006 and again this year in 2007 I will hold a show, "Paper and Clay", at Tome Gallery with my artist colleague and fellow gallery member, Eiso Nishiura. We hope this will become an annual event and we hope you will join us for the party.

All the best,

Anne Marie Werner-Smith