The Secretive Owl: Jan Kushnier

May 19, 2019

The Secretive Owl: Jan Kushnier

As a diurnal flyer I prefer to roost at night. I am well able to avoid predator birds that I might encounter during the day, but at night, I would be compromised. Now and then, just as the day starts to get a little dusky, an owl might perch itself atop a telephone pole or in a tall tree to survey its territory. It has not yet begun the evening hunt. I do not know for certain whether a carrier pigeon would be part of its dietary regimen. I am not entirely confident in this regard. I give it a wide berth. Hopefully it will be none the wiser.

Potter Jan Kushnier says she has always been drawn to owls:

Though they appear quiet and reflective, owls always have a purpose. They continually question: Who? Who? But mostly I am intrigued by their bright eyes ... a window to their secretive souls.

It would seem that a place for Jan at Proutopia: Birds of a Feather was foretold. She says she received a special message:

A note in my birthday card this month said: Fly, fly high. I am taking that as an omen!

“Clay play” is the phrase Jan uses to describe her pottery work:

When I manipulate clay, it is as though a part of me reshapes itself and is set free in the clay. I mainly create masks and wall-mounted fish ... forms which are very spiritual and transforming for me.

She says her creative process allows her to lose all sense of time, and problems disappear:

My energy is focused on making something from a cold lump of clay. And when that transformation happens, my heart sings.

She knows that with raku, there are no guarantees. Raku firing is a catalyst for the capricious: red hot pottery sealed out of sight into a can full of combustibles, starved of oxygen. Carbon is left behind where there is no glaze: stress, cracks, flashes of colour, fire scarring. It is an invisible alchemical process:

The raku process excites me as it is so unpredictable. Results can be good, bad or

ugly. I have been known to chirp and strut about when the results are good.