Mudslinging creates beautiful pottery

BY LINDA DeNICOLA
Staff Writer

Lauren Bellero We all know what mudslinging means these days. We see it every day in political ads. But there is another kind of mudslinging, one that has a positive and productive outcome, even a beautiful one.

Red Bank artist Lauren Bellero is involved in creative mudslinging, the kind that creates pottery. She calls her Red Bank studio “Mudslinger’s Pottery.”

“For me, there is immense pleasure, excitement and serenity in creating with clay. Using a variety of techniques, I create hand-built and wheel-thrown stoneware pottery with reckless abandon,” she said.

Leafbowl Bellero has two kilns, an electric one in the basement of her Red Bank home and another, pit kiln, dug into the ground at her Canadian cabin.

“My husband has been going to Canada since he was a child. We have a little cabin on 120 acres. In order to get me to want to go up there so he can fish to his heart’s content, he built me a kiln,” Bellero said.

She added that she creates the pit-fired pieces at home in Red Bank and takes them to Canada to fire them.

Bellero is fascinated by a wide range of forming and firing methods, and uses several techniques in her creative process. Some of her pieces are functional and some are decorative. Her art may be informal and free-flowing, or elegantly angled, deeply textured, or with highly polished surfaces.

Fired Jar She says that each piece tells a tale. She tries to draw the viewer to her work by making it difficult to resist the temptation to hold the piece while appreciating its beauty.

Bellero said she is inspired by everything.

“It comes from observation, books, nature — it comes from life. I will find an idea for my next piece just as easily at a garage sale as while hiking along a wooded path.”

Asian Jar The influence of places she has experienced in her travels is also reflected in her work.

She is continually expanding and fine-tuning her skills, and regularly attends workshops and classes.

“I’m energized through my interactions with other potters,” she said.

When she is sparked with an idea, Bellero plans her approach. She may sketch on paper or with clay, or pursue an idea through multiple forms in a progressive series. She enjoys the colors attainable in her electric kiln, as well as the stormy, sultry effects achieved in her primitive firings.

She explains that her pottery is wheel-thrown or hand-built, allowed to dry to leather-hard and trimmed, then buffed for a smooth finish or textured and left with a rough surface before they are bisque-fired.

Various enhancements for color and decoration are then applied. These include copper carbonate, salt, iron, copper mesh, steel wool and plant materials. Sometimes, the pots are wrapped in newspaper or aluminum foil.

Her favorite technique for producing work is pit-firing because, she said, it is a return to a more traditional method and is a further connection with the earth. She starts by an offering of kiln gods, which she explained are little images in clay that take two or three minutes to make.

“Just before the firing you sacrifice them to the kiln gods,” she said.

The pots are then fired in the earthen kiln, which is actually an 8-foot-long by 4-foot-wide by 4-foot-deep pit dug out of the ground with walls reinforced with sheet metal.

The pots are placed on a 6-inch bed of wood chips, charcoal pieces and shredded paper, topped off with sawdust. The area of the pot in the fine sawdust will turn black from carbon being deposited in the pores of the clay. Organic materials and chemicals are added on and around the pots. A layer of salt-soaked straw is then added.

She collects cow pies from a local farm, dries and adds them to increase the temperature and to act as insulation. More shredded paper is added, which becomes a cushion for the large fire built around the pots. Finally, kindling and larger pieces of wood are stacked until they mound over the top of the pit.

“Eventually, the fire is covered and allowed to smolder. Smoke and flames licking around the contours of the pots produce the unpredictable and beautiful results. The final effects are always a wondrous surprise,” she said.

For a number of years, Bellero worked and studied pottery on the side, but in 2001, she was downsized from her corporate job.

“I can honestly say it was a good thing. Now I am a full-time potter. It is not as lucrative, but without a doubt, it is much more satisfying.”

Bellero is one of 13 artists exhibiting at the newly expanded Ocean County Artists’ Guild in Island Heights. The holiday exhibit and sale includes diverse works that are functional and purely imaginative.

An opening reception will be held on Nov. 6 from 1-4 p.m. at the Guild on the corner of Ocean and Chestnut avenues, and the show will run through Dec. 23.

In addition, on Nov. 13 she will hold an art show and sale at her workshop on Leroy Place.

Bellero said when she married Paul Reeser in 1994, “He recognized the fire in me for pottery and together we set up a studio in our home.

“I make the pots, but he makes it all possible. It is just such a freeing experience to be able to take a lump of clay and make it into something.”