Spotlight: Building Connections Ellen Kleckner

Appears in the March 2024 issue of Ceramics Monthly.

Ceramics Monthly: How do generosity, receptivity, and comfort manifest in your collaborations, and how do they contribute to the broader narrative of connection in your work? 

Ellen Kleckner: Creating through collaboration is a fundamental element in my creative process. My approach to collaboration goes beyond working with another artist; I include my exploration of materials, traditions, and techniques as forms of collaboration. 

For me, a true collaboration is built upon the generosity of each maker to enter into a creative space of trust. When artists release authorship, it allows for a comfortable space that encourages creative growth as layers are built on each other through evolutionary dialog. Working through creative partnerships has permitted me to re-envision what is considered individual practice and has augmented my idea of conceptual growth. Successful collaboration creates space for exploration and gives meaning to the curiosities we may dismiss in our solitary practices. 

Working with artists Riley McManus and John Schwartzkopf to create a series of rockers helped me evolve the work beyond me as an individual. I am intimately invested in these relationships, as they nourish me creatively and emotionally. As I continue cultivating a creative community around me, my work articulates my desire to highlight the importance of connections. 

CM: How does collaborating with Linda Tien on the Im-ple-ment Archive showcase the magic of two makers with diverse studio backgrounds working together on a common subject? 

EK: For the better part of a decade, Linda Tien and I have been working together on The Im-ple-ment Archive, an exploration of traditional craft practices paired with play and experimentation. This project brings our diverse backgrounds together in the studio with a mutual respect that fosters trust. 

Our collaboration is woven into our independent studio practices. We approach the Archive as an open-time collaboration with an ebb and flow for each of us to pick up the project and set it aside as time allows. There is a reliance on each other for material or technical knowledge, plus the encouragement to explore. This format has made the Archive a sustainable project and allowed for opportunities to plan microbursts of productivity during scheduled times. 

The Im-ple-ment Archive is a transformative collaboration for us both, allowing for dialog and discovery unbound by expectation and time. A crucial part of holistic collaboration is the notion that you cannot plan an exact outcome, the unexpected needs to be embraced. Additional information can be found at www.im-ple-ment.com, on the Implement Archive Instagram page @implement_archive, and on ellenkleckner.com. 

Photo: Dana Danley-Fortier.