Teresa Shannon with ITOC Participants and Bonanza Creek LTER collaborators
• ceramic tile, steel, birch •
Boreal Conversations is a reflection and a manifestation of the collaborative process in “Boreal Echoes”. The piece represents our coming together around the table as collaborators, where we built and strengthened our relationships to each other and to the boreal forest.
In May of 2024, the ITOC artist cohort and several Bonanza Creek LTER collaborators met at the UAF Ceramics studio, bringing sticks, leaves, berries, bones, and other collected samples from the boreal forest along with tools of their art-making or scientific process. Each member carefully pressed their artifacts into slabs of soft clay, leaving an impression in the clay of their objects. The textured clay was cut into tiles and fired, creating a permanent record of the event and the artifacts.
Reflections from participants on their tile-making process included thoughts of the quiet opening that occurs with time spent in the forest, the nature of time and mark-making for future generations, the difference between patterns from tools made by humans versus elements from the forest, and the positive energy of the collaborative tile-making experience.
Contributors to “Boreal Conversations” were Susan Campbell, Jason Downing, Alyssa Enriquez, Nancy Hausle-Johnson, Mary Beth Leigh, Amy Loeffler, Jennifer Moss, Ree Nancarrow, Oralee Nudson, Teresa Shannon, Todd Sherman, Marianne Stolz, and Sara Tabbert.
Special thanks to Scott Holladay for his help with table construction.
TERESA SHANNON
Teresa Shannon was born and raised in Fairbanks, Alaska. She attended the University of Alaska, Fairbanks where she received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1998. In 2005 she completed a Master of Fine Arts in Ceramics from Wichita State University in Kansas. After finishing graduate school she returned to Fairbanks where she teaches ceramics part time at UAF. She makes pots and ceramic sculptures inspired by woodland creatures and dinosaurs in her home studio in Fairbanks. Her work is nostalgic and lighthearted; commemorating quiet moments at home and in nature. Teresa’s work has been exhibited across Alaska around the country. She recently completed a one year Visiting Assistant Professor position at Nicholls State University in Louisiana where she saw many connections between the rural life of coastal Louisiana and the rural life of interior Alaska.
Website: tsceramics.com
