Pamela Nagley Stevenson

Pamela Nagley Stevenson was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, and majored in ceramic studies at the University of Hawaii, the University of Victoria and the Banff Centre for the Arts.

She has been a studio potter in the mountainous Slocan Valley since 1976, and she has taught clay studio and ceramic history courses at the Kootenay School of the Arts at Selkirk College in Nelson, BC, since 1993. She specializes in making high-temperature porcelain vessels suitable for daily use and ceremonial occasions. Her work embraces the vital relevance of sacred mythologies and the traditional faiths of many cultures.

Pamela completed and fired her new cross-draft two-chamber Cat arch wood soda kiln ULTRAEA in 2009, a collaborative adventure with kiln partners Susanne Ashmore, Diane Burt and the brilliant assistance of Cameron Stewart. Her newest work celebrates the luscious diversity of surface variations from both chambers, a greater intensity of gnarly ash and wood-flashing to luminous colorful new soda glazes.

"Spinning out of ancient cultures and gentle gestures, my mythopoeic pottery plays with archetypal forms and symbolic references, and invites both contemplation and intimate functional use. I ask my clay work to communicate in the universal language of devotion, offering and libation."