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Translucent Blooms

Eclectic potter Jan Bilek takes inspiration from the organic

Photo by Eric Moore

Keeping a thriving garden is all too often a hit-or-miss venture in this, the land of 10,000 lakes. Renegade Midwestern weather destroys fledgling growth, stubborn onions refuse to sprout, or, in the case of Jan Bilek’s organic garden, area deer use the perennial foliage as a lunch buffet.

Thankfully for the local art scene, Bilek turned her energies toward making fluidly abstract porcelain versions of eggplants, butter lettuces, berries, and squash. Now, the elegant artist can be found in her Northrup King Building studio wheel-throwing sensuously shaped, vibrantly hued vessels and dishware.

“I throw in quantity,” says the award-winning Minneapolis potter. “I might throw 10 or 20 pieces at a time of the same form, and while the first or last pieces might not be as good, somewhere in the center are the perfect ones for me. I really learn to understand the form more every time I sit down and throw it.”

After this meticulous process, strategically placed smudges transform static white forms into ripe cornucopias. Bilek uses a very watery glaze that is “less than forgiving” compared with other glazes. “My glazes changed how I work,” she says, pointing to one of her blossom bowls: the spaces between each delicately crafted petal act as channels to carry minute rivers of black glaze into a perfect floral heart.

On her vases and bottles, glaze flows down into a Bilek-invented “catcher,” a concave pedestal attached to the base of the piece that helps prevent kiln spillage and is promptly lopped off after the piece has been fired. The result? Delicious, ethereal works so liquid-looking you’d swear they were melting off your coffee table.

Though as a child she dreamed of a house filled with her own art, Bilek never really intended to become an artist. But, after working happily as an interior designer for a number of years, she realized it was time to meet her own creative expectations rather than a client’s.

She resumed a long-time appreciation for watercolors and eventually tried her hand at pottery in 1998. Bilek was working full-time in the medium by 2000 and hasn’t stopped since. Even when elbow-deep in the functional tumblers and bowls of every potter’s beginnings, she knew she wanted to fashion room-enhancing decorative pieces with the same translucent sense of movement as her beloved watercolors.

Bilek has kept a few golden rules from her interior design experience, as well: carefully planning gorgeous glazed bulbs in groupings (she believes a piece has far more impact in a set of three); and keeping a watchful eye on home-friendly color trends (streaks of muted gold and warm amber play off cooler tones of blues and mauves fit for a sky and teals for the sea).

But above all, Bilek’s favorite part of her clay-splattered, nature-inspired artistic life is working with her hands—and getting them downright dirty. “To have permission to do that as an adult,” she says. “I love it!”

Haily Gostas is a Minneapolis freelance writer.

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