Raised in Anchorage, Alaska, Leanne received a B.F.A. from the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities in 1997. In 2002 she received her M.F.A. at Louisiana State University. She is currently a Full Professor at Governors State University located in the south Chicagoland suburbs.
Pinching a pot in porcelain is both a way of making and a choice in surface. The pinched canvas of a pot tells the story of the exquisite labor of its making. Like handmade paper with a deckled edge, the pinched surface holds line and glaze, accepting imperfection, in a motherly embrace. The porcelain body heightens the image of touch by exquisitely capturing the imperfect repeated impression of every perfect fingerprint, every breath, and echo of its human maker.
I make pots from my body for the body. I translate an idea and emotion into vessels that reveal my unconscious self. The objects then serve as tangible evidence that illustrate the complexity of what it is like for me to be human. My life is messy and I have learned that there is little I can do to control it, but I’ve gotten better at dancing in the mess and seeing it as beauty. The ceramic surface has been my meditation on longing, adaptability, and resilience. I am imperfect and that is perfect. I want to share with you that the hardest thing I have to do in life is to sit with capacious longing.
I draw inspiration from how my full body interacts with other objects…other bodies When someone uses a cup I’ve created, I want them to think of my lip touching theirs as they drink. Run your fingers around the form, bring it to your mouth, use it to nourish your body, meditate on it. I captured my existence in the moment that you are embracing. My life was gliding in and out of focus, messy in parts where the grisly fat and meat met crisp bone. The ceramic form captures my mind wandering from desire to thoughtfulness to desire and fear and back again.
Through pottery, my emotions are shareable touch. Through glaze, I want the surface to capture life’s lability and instability. In the vessel I am capturing a snapshot of the most dramatic moment of transformation in the kiln between liquid and solid states. In the glazing process, I am curating tension between hard and soft, ephemeral and tangible, mind and body.
Ultimately most of the objects I make are special occasion pots for the home. They are not necessarily meant for daily use but for times of reflection, ritual, and celebration. It is in this arena of the domestic that I find the room for community and vulnerable conversation. The dinner table is a stage to share with honesty, my struggles and longings through my artwork. I show the ability of a ceramic object to capture humanity’s fragility and resilience, cheek by jowl.