"Expanse in Blue" by Molly Allen

What makes you truly happy?

My purest form of happiness I have found is through the simple act of swimming outside. That connection between person and environment and the experience of being so completely based in your body is unparalleled. This work explores that idea while adding ideas of the sublime and paradise. 

Short Bio 

Originally from the mountains of Colorado, Molly Allen is an interdisciplinary artist working with sculptural ceramics and alternative process image making. She received her MFA in ceramics at Ohio University in 2019. She completed a Post-Baccalaureate program at the University of Montana after receiving her BFA in 2013 with concentrations in both Ceramics and New Genres from Sierra Nevada College, where she graduated as Valedictorian of her class. Molly has been a resident artist at Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts, Mendocino Art Center, Medalta International in Canada, the International Ceramics Studio in kecskemet Hungary and The Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity and Pottery Northwest in Seattle, WA. Her work has been exhibited both nationally and internationally. Molly is currently faculty and Gallery Director at University of Nevada Reno, Lake Tahoe 

Artist Statement

My work negotiates the friction between cognitive perceptions, dreams and the subtle failures to distinguish what is real and what is not. For me, the human body and the idea of thought is a constant source of inspiration, a universal form we both inhabit and relate through.

Thinking and working in an interdisciplinary manner, I create figurative ceramic sculpture, drawings, photographs and collages. I approach sculpting and composing images similarly through layering—physically, pictorially, formally, and conceptually. Combining clay objects and image, both found and made, I utilize collage as a tool to explore the idea of landscape as it relates to the personal. Some of my most recent work is an examination and exploration into ephemeral spaces, both physical and psychological. Engaging in the acknowledged futility of attempting to define