Lookout Sculpture Park in Damascus,
Pennsylvania, enthusiastically
celebrated the first firing of its
anagama kiln in July 2005. This firing
was the culmination of a multi-year saga
of petitioning for township permits,
scrounging materials, acquiring
essential expertise, and building a
community of artists to make works, chop
wood, and stoke the kiln. An anagama
kiln is a wood-fueled kiln of a type
used for centuries in Japan. Building
and firing an anagama kiln is much more
difficult than using
commercially-available gas or electric
kilns, so it takes real vision and
commitment to do anagama firing.
Proponents love the unpredictable and
often very beautiful effects of fire and
wood ash upon their works. Since the
1970s an increasing number of American
and European artists have been drawn to
anagama firing.
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The building of the kiln at Lookout
Sculpture Park was directed by Susanne
Wibroe-Fost, Director of Lookout
Sculpture Park, and her husband Laurent,
with the assistance of Ryusei Arita, a
ceramic artist and master kiln builder.
A student and protégé of Peter Voulkos,
Wibroe-Fost hoped to continue Voulkos’
legacy of openness, creativity and
experimental energy at Lookout Sculpture
Park. In pursuit of this vision, she
purchased extensive acreage in northern
Pennsylvania more than 20 years ago. In
short order she built an enormous studio
for herself and equipped it for making
large-scale steel sculpture. She also
carved out a warren of sleeping quarters
to house visiting artists, and began to
renovate the main house as her home.
Organized as a not-for-profit
institution, Lookout Sculpture Park has
for many years offered summer
residencies to sculptors, whose works in
wood, metal and found and organic
materials soon began to populate the
rolling meadows and the banks of the
shimmering pond. An impressive
international roster of sculptors has
participated in the summer residencies
and Lookout has also offered programs to
local schools and camps.
Wibroe-Fost had long hoped to add
ceramics to the materials that she and
visiting artists could explore. Despite
severe financial constraints, she
managed to scavenge or purchase at
nominal cost a vast array of refractory
bricks, potters wheels, assorted glaze
chemicals and tools that she warehoused
in the barn while she and Lookout’s
volunteer legal counsel Curt Hemlepp
sought township permission to build the
kiln. Finally, she was able to pour the
foundation of the kiln in 1997. In a
stroke of good fortune, Wibroe-Fost also
reconnected with Ryusei Arita, another
Voulkos protégé, who had decades of
experience in building and firing his
own kiln in the mountains near San
Francisco. Arita agreed to help design,
build and supervise the firing of the
Lookout kiln, and came to Pennsylvania
in the summer of 2003 with his assistant
Hitoshi Ito to begin the process. Over
the course of 2003 and 2004 the kiln
began to take shape, and in the summer
of 2004, with the main vault in place,
the kiln was dedicated to “the spirit of
Peter Voulkos” and in memory of Curt
Hemlepp. In Spring 2005, work on the
kiln began again with renewed
enthusiasm. The chimney was built, the
vault was insulated, and a roof was
built to offer protection from the
weather. Arita arrived in July with
ceramic artists Conrad Calimpong and his
son, Granite, both experienced in wood
firing at their own kiln in California,
to help manage the firing.
Three tons of clay, mixed according to
Peter Voulkos’ recipe, had been
delivered and guest and local artists
set about making vessels and sculptures
to be fired. Watching other artists at
work was inspiring and challenging. One
artist, Volkan Otugen, said: “The
expansiveness of the site, the capacity
of the kiln, and the availability of
tons of clay encouraged me to work much
larger than had been my prior practice
in the more cramped environs of
Greenwich House Pottery in Manhattan.
Once I saw what Ryusei and Conrad were
doing, I thought to myself: ‘I’ve got to
work a lot bigger.’ It was great, too,
to have east coast and west coast
artists working together.”
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Once the new work had dried
sufficiently, the vases and plates,
teabowls and sculptures, were placed in
the kiln and the firing commenced,
initially at a low temperature to drive
off any residual moisture, and then at
increasingly high temperatures over the
course of six days and nights up to 2300
degrees Fahrenheit. Crews were in charge
of stoking the kiln every few minutes.
After a three-day cooling period, the
kiln was opened to reveal a pile of
cinders and soot through which one could
discern the forms of the vessels and
sculptures. Carefully lifted from their
ashy beds, the works were
enthusiastically greeted by their makers
and a number of interested onlookers,
all mesmerized by the transformation
that the raw clay had experienced. “I
greatly enjoyed the spirit of community
and cooperation that this woodfiring
project engendered, as well as its
novelty and unpredictability,” said
Cecily Fortescue. She continued: “I had
never been involved in a woodfiring
before, and it would seem that even the
experts never quite know what the
results will be. Looking through the
main stoke hole at that glowing inferno,
it seemed to me a miracle that a pot
could even survive such fiery
treatment.” Naomi Teppich says, “My
favorite part of doing anything in clay
is creating the form rather than
painting on glaze. So the anagama
process afforded me this luxury of
placing my piece in the kiln and having
it come out with an interesting finish
without the need for glaze or oxides.”
Neighbors Catherine and Travis Hemlepp,
who are avid art collectors and
supporters of Lookout Sculpture Park,
were involved spectators in the firing
from beginning to end. “We were very
impressed by the dedication and
enthusiasm of the artists who
participated,” they said. “We deeply
regret that Curt, who passed away two
years ago, was not here physically to
witness the dramatic result of his
efforts to make the kiln a reality.
We_re certain, however, that he was here
in spirit.”
The works ranged from large vases and
vessels to small sake cups; some had
been decorated with stamped impressions,
freehand drawings, shino glaze and
slips, and rice straw, while others
depended upon strength and purity of
form for their appeal. The natural ash
glaze created by the firing resulted in
gritty black alternating with warm
browns and tans, sharkskin grey, and
flashes of gold, peach and even purple.
New York artist Risa Hirsch Ehrlich
said: “The invitation to share in the
firing was unexpected and the
opportunity was unique. I have been
working seriously in clay since 1997,
doing electric and gas firing and some
raku work as well, but an anagama wood
firing was something unheard of among my
fellow artists because it is almost
impossible to pull together,
unimaginably so if you are a city
artist. I accepted the invitation to
join the group with enthusiasm and
gratitude, even if my only applicable
skills were splitting and stacking wood
and occasionally fetching water or
lemonade. It was wonderful to meet and
share with dedicated local artists, but
I felt particularly privileged to spend
time with the West Coast trio whose
background and sensibilities brought a
Japanese respect and flavor to their
work-- for today it is as if Japanese
ceramics is the mother to us all.”
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Jim Raglione had about 40 “pinch pots”
in the anagama firing. Raglione notes
that the application of the insulation
to the kiln was very labor intensive.
“I’ve learned one thing for sure” he
says, “and that is that you have to make
sure all your firewood is well-stocked
and well-stacked prior to the firing. In
the week before we fired the kiln a lot
of time and muscle was devoted to
preparing the wood, and I was concerned
that people would no longer have the
enthusiasm and energy to continue.”
Raglione’s discipline is to make one
pinch pot a day and he has been doing it
for more than 4 years. He now has well
over 1,000 pots all marked with the date
they were made. His works assert the
primacy of human touch over the bland
anonymity of mass production. “Each time
I make a pot I think ‘this will be
better than the last one,’” says
Raglione. “It is interesting to see how
my technique has changed over the
years.”
Wibroe-Fost expects that the kiln will
attract ceramic artists of international
stature and hopes Lookout will
eventually offer workshops and
international residencies in ceramics,
as it has in sculpture. Future plans
call for the creation of a metal foundry
at Lookout, offering new possibilities
to established and emerging artists. She
notes how important the help and support
of the local community has been to her
efforts. “I have so many people to
thank,” she says. After 20 years, our
work has only just begun. I thought I
was building a kiln, but I found that I
was actually building a community. The
kiln brought together a group of
artists, writers, gallery directors, and
collectors who all have become committed
to the success of Lookout Sculpture
Park. I feel deeply grateful and very
optimistic about our future.”
Her words are echoed by many of the
participants. Tom and Jane Biron said,
“The whole kiln experience was so much
more than the firing of a few pots.
Suzy’s sense of community inspired
everyone who took part. We’ll never be
able to look at fire and clay the same
way again.” Kristin Muller, who fires
her own anagama kiln near Dingman’s
Ferry, came to offer her support during
the firing and said: “Lookout Sculpture
Park’s anagama is a magnificent kiln.
Built in the Momoyama period style, it
is elegant and powerful. Everyone
involved in the firing was excited and
enthusiastic about helping Ryusei Arita
reach temperatures of over 2300 degrees
Fahrenheit. The kiln is situated
perfectly on a hill overlooking outdoor
sculptures by different artists that
span beyond your field of vision.
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You simply cannot help feeling inspired
by the Park and the people. Suzy has
succeeded in creating a haven for
artists, a community that is supportive
of the creative spirit and that invites
everyone to participate. Her visionary
openness to art and the community and
the scale of the project at Lookout
Sculpture Park should be experienced by
everyone.”
Ceramics from the first firing were
exhibited in August 2005 in a group show
at the Delaware Valley Arts Alliance
gallery in Narrowsburg, New York, and
subsequently some of the work was
included in the Catskill Arts Society
“Color and Craft” exhibition, October
2005, in Hurleyville, NY.
For more information about Lookout
Sculpture Park contact Susanne
Wibroe-Fost at suzywibroe@freesurf.fr
Participants in the firing:
Susanne Wibroe-Fost, Director, Lookout
Sculpture Park
Ryusei Arita, Master Kiln Builder and
ceramic artist
Jane and Tom Biron
Conrad Calimpong
Granite Calimpong
Risa Hirsch Ehrlich
Cecily Fortescue
Hitoshi Ito
Noriko Itzuka
Kristin Muller
Volkan Otugen
Patricia Pelehach
Jim Raglione
Naomi Teppich
About the author: Patricia Pelehach
is a ceramic sculptor and art critic
whose reviews and artist profiles have
appeared in Ceramics: Art and Perception
and American Ceramics. She lives and
works in Brooklyn Heights, NY, and
Pleasant Mount, PA.
