Working with clay is an incredibly rewarding escape from the pace and demands of a busy life. The creative process is unending in its complexity and lessons.
For the past 20 years, I have been developing my voice in clay. What began with a summer course to "get out of the house once a week" became a 3 year stay at a local pottery studio. By the fourth year, I had purchased a wheel and a kiln and started my own studio. In general, I am inspired by things to do with my family such as the places we have visited and the heritage of my ancestors. To that end, I have created pots ranging from iconic colors and shapes associated with Scotland and Ireland, to lace and flowers and to the colors of the ocean and the beach. In every case, these spaces, times and people inspired me to throw all of my ideas and skills into creating pots that embodied all that I felt, remembered and experienced there and then.
Professional development, through workshops, conferences, events and visits to studios and shops all filter into my work, often through careful experimentation but always through creative inspiration and interpretation. Like any artist, ideas, designs, skill and opportunity comes in waves. The work I create reflects that ability to carve out a place for my art in amongst all of the other things I do with my time, some years more than others. As the clay itself will tell you, you can't rush it, a motto for daily life!
I received a Bachelor of Arts (Hons. Psychology) from Carleton University and went on to receive a Bachelor of Education from the University of Ottawa. Teaching and then taking time off to begin our family meant that a creative outlet was in order. First came the study of watercolour techniques and then along came clay. Both have intersected more than once in my artistic career, each leading discoveries that worked with the other and creating a personal expression in both mediums.
I have been working with clay now for twenty-three years, amassing ideas and inspiration through courses/workshops/seminars given by the City of Ottawa, the Ottawa Guild of Potters, Fusion Clay and Glass Assoc. and the National Council for Education on the Ceramic Arts (Providence, RI and Pittsburgh, PA). I have served on the Ottawa Guild of Potters Executive as VP, President and Past President and coordinated the giving of charitable donations on behalf of the OPG at sales for 10 years. In 2006, I orchestrated the OGP's presence at the Canadian Tulip Festival in Ottawa and, in 2009, helped organize and install the OGP ’s 30th Anniversary exhibition, "Symphony", at the Craft Ontario Gallery, Toronto. The greatest project of my career in clay to date, "Populace", began in 2016, culminating in 2017 with a 9000 ceramic sculpture installation, for which I served as Project Coordinator. My work, both functional and sculptural, is found in private collections in Canada and abroad.
Qualifications
Courses and workshops in functional ceramics (began summer 2000, ongoing)
BA Psychology 1989, BEd (Cum Laude) 1990
Memberships
FUSION, the Ontario Clay and Glass Association
National Council for Education in the Ceramic Arts (NCECA)
Ottawa Guild of Potters
Workshops and Conferences
NCECA, Pittsburgh, March 13-18, 2018
FUSION workshop with Chandra Debuse, Oct 21-22, 2017
Demonstration Workshop with Tom Jasczczak, Ottawa, August 18-19, 2017
Demonstration workshop with Martha Grover, Kingston, 2016
NCECA, Rhode Island, March 24-28, 2015
Decal printing with Arthur Petch, Ottawa - Private lesson, February 2015
Surface Decoration workshop with Chris Sneddon, Ottawa, September 20, 2014
Animal Sculptures with Susan Halls, Ottawa, October 5-6, 2013
Demonstration workshop with Steve Irvine, Nepean, February 2012
FUSION conference with Robin Hopper, North Bay, May 2005
Tile Decoration Workshop with Carolynne Pynn-Trudeau, February 1, 2003
Cone 6 Glazing with Anne Chambers, Nepean, Feb 8, 2003
Handbuilding Workshop with Chandler Swain, May 2003
Demonstration Workshop with Lois Romanow, "Do What You Love, Love What You Do", Dunrobin, Jan 27-28, 2001
Activities and Functions
Chair, Ottawa Guild of Potters 50th Anniversary Scholarship 2023
Served as Ottawa Guild of Potters VP, President, Past President from 2005-2010
Charitable Donations Coordinator, Ottawa Guild of Potters, 2005-2013
Co-created and coordinated OGP Clay Olympics (October 21, 2007 and June 22, 2013)
Proposed and coordinated the OGP at the Canadian Tulip Festival, Major's Hill Park, Spring 2006
Coordinated and installed "Symphony", an OGP Juried Exhibition in Toronto at the Ontario Crafts Council Gallery (May 7-31, 2009)
Coordinator - ‘Populace’, Ottawa Guild of Potters, Ottawa, 2016-2018
Teaching
‘Populace’ workshops and demonstrations:
Ottawa Guild of Potters sale- Public Populace making event. Ottawa, April 28-30
Canadian Museum of Nature, April 4
West Carleton SS, All Saints CHS, Ecole Secondaire De La Salle, Loam, Ottawa, Nov 2016 - March 2017
City Hall, Ottawa, and Opeongo HS, Douglas, February 2017
Loam, Gloucester Pottery School, De La Salle HS, Canadian Museum of Nature, Ottawa and Kingston Pottery Guild, Kingston, January 2017
Loam, December 2017
Gladstone Clayworks, Loam, Canadian Museum of Nature, November 2017
Lynda Northey Studio, Dunrobin, September and October 2017
Workshops for the West Carleton Home School Co-Operative, Dunrobin, Feb 28 & March 6, 2008
Workshops for March Academy, Kanata, June 2007, Jan 2008, April 2015
Group Exhibitions
‘Populace at Home’ – Dust Evans Gallery, Ottawa, October 21-December 13, 2017
Celebrating Clay – ‘It's All About the Wings' - Gallerie Côté Créations, Ottawa, November 1-30, 2017
‘Populace’ – Canadian Museum of Nature, Ottawa, June 17- September 9. 2017
Ottawa Guild of Potters Juried Spring Exhibition, Ottawa, May 22-24, 2016
Awards
Ontario 150 grant of $10,000 on behalf of the Ottawa Guild of Potters for ‘Populace’, February 2017
ACHIP grant of $12,000 on behalf of the Ottawa Guild of Potters for ‘Populace’, September 2016
Bibliography
O Canada! A celebration of 150 years, Joan Weinman and Kimothy Walker, 2017, page 133.
“Honoring History” – Ceramic Review, Sept/Oct 2017
“The making of Populace: A Bold Ceramic Art Installation for Canada’s 150th Celebrations, Kim Lulashnyk- Fusion Magazine, September 2017 Vol.41 No.2
“Snapshot in Time: Ottawans Asked to Help Fill City Time Capsule with 2017 Mementos”, Erin McCracken, Nepean Barrhaven News, Metroland Media, August 30, 2017
“Le Tre Anime (in Fiore) Del Canada”, Georgia Tasso, IO Donna, Milan, August 5, 2017
“Nancy Riggs of the Glebe and Annu and Maya Chopra from Barrhaven help install thousands of ceramic feathers, roses and fleurs-de-lis…” –Nepean-Barrhaven News, Metroland Media, June 22, 2017
“Canada 150 pottery Exhibit Celebrates Canada’s Cultures During Confederation”, Lauren Malyk – Ottawa Citizen, June 19, 2017
News and Views with Rob Snow - Rob Snow, (Host), Interview with Kim Lulashnyk, Ottawa, On:580 CFRA Talk Radio, June 19, 2017
“Populace 2017 Pour Canada 150”, Barbara Laurenstein (Reporter) – Le tele journal CBC. French television report and interview, 16 juin, 2017
“82-hundred ceramic flowers are waiting to be installed at the Museum of Nature” – Radio series episode- All in a Day with Alan Neal, Ottawa, ON: CBC Radio One, 91.5 FM, April 28, 2017
“Making Pottery Pieces for Populace Project”, Michele Leboldus - West Carleton Review, Ottawa , April 27, 2017
“Potters Set to Plant Tribute to Founders”, Natalie Rocha - Centretown News, Ottawa, April 11, 2017
“Capital Fun: 150 things to do in Ottawa for Canada’s 150th Birthday” – Canada Altitude Report, March 20, 2017
“Potters Heat Up a Different Kind of Ottawa 2017 Celebration”, Michelle Nash Baker – Ottawa Community News, March 6, 2017
“Making a Community Celebration Installation” - The Potters Cast with Paul Blais – episode 287, January 26, 2017
In 2006 and again in 2009, I visited Ireland and Scotland, as you may know. As part of my journey, I collected sea glass near the Cliffs of Moher, the coast of Northern Ireland, the shores near Turnberry and, perhaps most importantly, the shoreline by Gourock and Greenock. The last location was perhaps the most important because that was what my Grandpa Robertson would have last set his eyes on as he sailed away from his homeland as a boy of 12.
