Meet Artist: Michelle O’Hare

A Bird in Hand By Megin Potter

A bird in hand

WHEN LIFE TURNS TOPSY-TURVY comfort can be found in the small things.

“Sitting on my back porch, listening to the sounds of the birds with a cup of tea – that’s my favorite moment of the day,” said Michelle O’Hare. For 20 years, she’s worked an essential job at the Target Distribution Center, but it has always been nature that has replenished her spirit. “There’s a peacefulness, a calm, a connection with the earth and my soundings that grounds me, settles me and centers me,” she said.

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O’Hare first experimented with ceramics as a student at Saratoga Springs High School. Thirty years later, she picked it up again.

Since 2015, she’s been exploring atmospheric-fired clay, working under the tutelage of Jill FishonKovachick, founder of the Saratoga Clay Arts Center in Schuylerville. “I’m completely hooked,” said O’Hare. Working from initial sketches of bluebirds and chickadees, last year, O’Hare created a series of 100 sweet minimalist birds, exquisitely-formed and shaped so they fit comfortably in the palm of your hand. She took the collection to an intensive 4-day wood-firing residency on the grounds of Salem Art Works.

The fire in the 18 cubic-foot kiln burned at a blistering 2,340 degrees while O’Hare, and others on her crew, dressed in gloves and safety goggles, worked feverishly through the night, throwing wood on the flames for 48 hours straight. “It’s a pretty down and dirty process,” she said. O’Hare’s birds returned to where they were born – her back porch – so she could observe and acclimate herself to the results before she sold them at area fairs and gallery shows including the Saratoga Arts Art in the Park and Gallery Shop.

Fighting against physical exhaustion, the dangerous, unpredictable blazes shooting out from the kiln, and the fearful sounds of animals in the darkness finally led up to the moment she had been waiting for. This year, she is experimenting with carving and the lower temperature Raku ware firing process. Joining her birds in her backyard pit barrel kiln will be hand-built vases.

“It’s a very exciting moment to take the door off and see what it looks like under just a ton of ash,” said O’Hare. Pulling the birds from the ashes is a slow process. Each is unique; filled with shadows, colored by hot and cool spots, and by the fly ash that settles in glassy lines on their surface. “On each bird, you see the moments of what happened in the kiln,” she said. Scheduled to be included at several events this year, including the June 14th Beekman Street Arts Fair, and the Taste of Wilton Sept. 20th, if these events are canceled, you can still find her work by visiting MichelleOHarePottery.com, on Instagram: @michelle.ohare.pottery, and on Facebook: @michelleoharepottery S S