Penland 2010: Kristen Kieffer - Altered, Ornamented, and Electric

The first night in the studio - I starting giggling right when I started to wedge again

A view of the knoll on my way to the kitchens around 6 am


After pleading my sad story of being studio-less for the past two years to the Penland School of Crafts (which was sweetened by some great letters of recommendation - Thanks Reeder and John), they gave me a scholarship work study position to attend a summer workshop with Kristen Kieffer. While the work study position in the kitchen for AM prep cook (6am-10am) did take me away from the studio a bit, the kitchen staff is so much fun and the job is fairly easy. I cut more melons and veggies those two weeks than I think I have my entire life.

The class was great. It was such a laid back environment - very nurturing and open. Kristen showed us some of her novel decoration techniques and we tried them out.

Not knowing what I would make, I'm really surprised and excited about what did come out of me. Bicycle inspired motifs made by a bicycle wheel stamp and slip trailing in various colors. Another bike bowl was purchased by the director of the Spelman College Museum of Fine Art in Atlanta, GA at the auction. Unfortunately, I don't have an image of that piece. No doubt, the bicycle is something that is part of my lifestyle right now, and it will continue to surface in my work!


Barbara - a fellow bike enthusiast who purchased my first and (currently) only bike vase in a vicious auction bidding!


A collection of demitasse cups (with Kristen's trademark two-piece handle


A bike mug that was purchased at the show and tell by Boyd Sugiki and Lisa Zerkowitz (fabulous glass artists)


A view of the sunset hillside on summer solstice - 8:35pm

A view of the knoll from my window in the Craft House

View of the clay studio at sunset


Penland is Beautiful. It also is full of beautiful people.

Fresh new wheels for a fresh new studio

Thank you, Raleigh craigslist.

I am now the proud owner of two wheels - one a treadle wheel (powered by my foot) and the other an electric. Both a little used, but both equally functional and equally awesome. The treadle wheel is the same as one that I used to trim on when I was learning how to throw in high school. It's wonderfully nostalgic!

Pictured is my friend John from my department who helped me pick them up in his well-abused truck. he helped me with well wishes because he could tell how momentous this act was in setting me up for this next phase of my life and love. I could not have done this without him!

Beginning again

It was the title of one of my pieces from four or so years ago, but it has a whole new meaning this time around. Back then, it was very emo. This time around, it is very real. In a matter of days I will be a graduate of a Master's in City and Regional Planning program. Where I go from here on out is still fairly open to serendipity. However, what I do know is that I'm excited to get back into a studio/pottery producing rhythm.

Below we have my first attempt to make plaster bats from old donated and waterlogged plaster. Eh, didn't work so well, so I'm attempting try #2 today.



Still, I've got donated reclaim clay, I'm soon to have a plaster bat to dry it out on, I've got some interest from local galleries, I'm heading to Penland in mid-June and I'm soon to have the time resources to put all these other pieces together. Yes, it is an exciting time. If you know anyone who is selling a wheel, please send them my way.

The end of the SEASSI summer

Always a graceful goodbye

It was eight weeks of intense language learning in Madison, WI. The teachers were phenomenal. It ended August 7th, 2009, and I am just getting to write about it. A summary in ten points...

1) I learned to sail a tech dingy and a sloop on Lake Mendota in my spare time.
2) I lost my prescription glasses in the lake during a pirate water battle.
3) I made my first Khmer friends!

The Cambodian SEASSI kids (clockwise from me, Vichet, Mary, Gina, Richard, Niroth)

4) By the end of the summer course we finished reading a famous Khmer novel, Sophat, and then created and acted a small skit based on it.
5) I learned an amazing amount about my language and my culture. However, nothing compared to what I would experience in December of 2009 when I traveled to Cambodia with my family.
6) Volunteered with the Bike Federation of Wisconsin.
7) Hung out with people in the park at sunset who hula hooped & spun poi.
8) Got walking pneumonia, which may now be dormant in my body and recur if I don't take care of myself.
9) I went on a two week family bike ride with Alex's family, who just happened to be planning the annual family bike ride in Central Wisconsin.
10) Returned home to North Carolina to begin a new semester.

The very beginning of the ride - Onalaska, WI, August 9th

SEASSI: Week Two

When I go to Cambodia, I will find this book.

It has been an extremely exciting week, because we are now able to put together words and sentences in Khmer, read some, and we are starting to work on our independent study projects. Whenever I slowly work my way through words I get a thrill of excitement (maybe this is what I felt like in kindergarten when I was learning how to read and write English). Each collection of symbols and characters are a little puzzle I get to decipher. Sometimes when I figure it out it's a word I already know and it's a wonderfully comfortable feeling. Sometimes it's a word I don't know, and I learn. Sometimes, I'm completely off in what I figure out, and I learn even more.

When we first started, the Director of the SEASSI program said it would be an emotional experience. The first chapter of our textbook said this would be an emotional experience. It said Heritage students are carrying "emotional baggage" that non-native speakers are not. I didn't quite believe it then, but perhaps it's true. We watched a movie about the Buddhist Peace March in Cambodia, and seeing the aftermath of the war was hard to handle. I noticed the only people with tears in their eyes were the Khmers or the Khmer-Americans in the room.

We also watched New Year Baby, a documentary about a Khmer-American woman's rediscovery and reconciliation with her family and her family's past. (Once again, probably to be expected, the ones most affected by the movie were the Khmer-Americans in the room.) There were several very awkward moments... points where I would not have wanted to video tape my parents or points that seemed contrived or over-directed. There is critique of how the movie was directed (click on the "aman_1117.pdf" link), suggesting that when Socheata was caught in between being a daughter and being a director, she directed more than she let things unravel as they would naturally unravel. More important than the objectivity of the piece, however (which you could say is arguable in any documentary - especially one where the director is one of the main characters) I think it tells a very important story. It ends with a message of healing, heroism and love, rather than suffering, silence and anger.

The director has a very interesting project in progress right now, similar to StoryCorps, but called Khmer Legacies. Its mission is to begin the difficult dialogue between Khmer-American children and their parents and to document those stories. It is something I've wanted to do with my parents for years. Since I was a child my dad always told me, "One day, you are going to tell my story, but only when you're older."

I feel like that day is coming soon.

Cambodian Dinner and Dance Party at sunset.

SEASSI: Week One

My Teachers, Nek Kruu, Lok Kruu Frank, Lok Kruu Kheang

The first week is done. The Khmer group is divided into sections, Beginning (those with no or very little background in Khmer), Intermediate Upper Level (those with knowledge of written language, but need practice in speaking), Intermediate Accelerated (namely Heritage Khmer-Americans like me who speak, but have little to no experience in reading or writing Khmer), and Advanced (there is only one student in this section). The teachers rotate to each group, so we all get exposure to different teaching styles and voices.

The four of us Heritage students, practicing the alphabet during break.

I had no knowledge of the Khmer alphabet before starting, but after four and a half days of study and exercise, I am familiar with all the consonants and vowels, but have yet to learn the sounds of the second series vowels and all the grammar and diacritics that go along with written Khmer. I am also quite bad at transcribing spoken Khmer. When I first looked at them all, they looked like pieces of toast and spaghetti. Here is a taste:

Khmer Consonants

As I grew up in New Hampshire, I didn't get the benefit of a strong Khmer culture. Some other students in this program are focusing in Southeast Asian studies, there are white people who speak better than me, and there are other Khmer-Americans who are the presidents of their Khmer-Culture clubs at school, have learned traditional dance since childhood, and have even organized and directed Cambodian plays. Sometimes it feels like I am more American-Khmer than Khmer-American, and in terms of personal culture and heritage, it makes me feel a little embarassed. Then, I remind myself, I am here to learn all this - and so I do.

Learning the stretches for Khmer dance at our Welcome SEASSI 2009 Reception

Lok Kruu Kheang and Gina demonstrating a dance for Culture Hour.
We all danced afterward.

We have two hours of "Culture" where we will learn about music, dance, food, lifestyle, religion, etc. A lot of Cambodian pop songs are about guys trying to pick up girls and failing. I could not find a youtube example for the one we listened to in class, but there is a popular group now called Dengue Fever. We watched "Sleepwalking through the Mekong" - a documentary of their first tour playing in Cambodia. They are a West Coast group, representing a fusion between surfer-rock and older Khmer songs. The singer is Khmer, only having lived in the states for 5 years or so.

Summer Studies: Madison at a Glance

After 20 hours in an Amtrak train and 3 hours on a bus, I arrived in Madison, Wisconsin, Wednesday the 10th. With no commitments until Sunday the 14th, every moment has been non-stop adventuring to better know this city I've never been to before. With every new discovery, I realize how amazing the place is.

Within the first mile I walked from campus to home I came across a man commuting on a unicycle and people in the James Madison Park doing Pilobus-style partner-yoga-balancing moves and people walking a tightrope between two trees. Over the next few days I spent an evening with a group of people who spin poi and hula hoops (who taught me some cool tricks), met a guy who used to spin poi and breathe fire at (strip) club, and met a father-son pair who walk on stilts of assorted styles for a living and collects vintage/art bicycles. Also, the father does the German Wheel and the son went to Circus camp (so he juggles, stilt walks, etc. etc.). I know I am in the right place.


Madison looks like a barbell of land (a.k.a. an isthmus) in between two lakes. It's the capital of Wisconsin, and you can get almost anywhere you need to go and beyond via Madison's network of bike lanes and bike paths. There is an incredible bike culture here, racers, recreational riders, hip riders, family riders, commuters, etc. etc. My apartment is across the street from a park that overlooks Lake Mendota, and it's especially stunning at sunset. There are many parks, many rail-trails, and it's very bike/walk friendly. The downtown State St. is reserved for pedestrians, bikes and buses, and there are impressive sight lines to the State Capitol Building.

Bike Paths in Madison: All the green lines are Bike-only, or at least Bike-priority, lanes

Thanks to the U.S. Department of Education and UNC-CH, I'll be studing Cambodian this summer (FLAS Grant). It's the equivalent of one year of study in eight weeks, so it promises to be very intense. The Southeast Asian Studies Summer Institute (SEASSI) is one of the only places in the US that teaches Cambodian, and they also teach Hmong, Thai, Vietnamese, Lao, Burmese, Indonesian, Filipino, and Javanese. It's important for my heritage, and it will be important in the future work I do.