Conversations with Lindsey Heiden and Kenyon Hansen

Today we’d like to introduce you to Lindsey Heiden and Kenyon Hansen.

Hi Lindsey and Kenyon, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start, maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers. 
Lindsey and Kenyon meet at a ceramic residency in 2008 at Center Street Clay, in Illinois. Eight years later, they married. Lindsey is originally from Illinois, and Kenyon is from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. They traveled around the USA for years, working in studios as studio assistants and resident artists. It was a nomadic life, which included their cats. While living in Montana, Lindsey was a studio assistant for Tara Wilson, and Kenyon was a long-term resident at the Archie Bray Foundation. Years later, Lindsey would return to Montana to do a short-term summer residency at the Archie Bray Foundation. 

Lindsey graduated from Western Illinois University in 2007 with a BFA in painting and, in 2018, earned an MFA with an emphasis in ceramics from the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville. Lindsey’s work is painterly, whimsical and there is a strong narrative element to it. She creates fairy tales that accompany her sculptural work. Kenyon earned a BFA in ceramics from Finlandia University in 2005. After graduation, he participated in an apprenticeship with woodfire potter Simon Levin, in Gresham, Wisconsin. While there he learned how to load and fire wood kilns. Kenyon went to the Archie Bray Foundation as a long-term resident artist, which was a life and career changing experience. There he transitioned from wood firing to soda firing. He now teaches workshops in the U.S.A. and internationally, where he demonstrates how he makes and thinks about his functional work. 

While in Montana Lindsey also transitioned away from wood firing. She started to electric fire her work, but this transition was more forced due to an injury. She never looked back after that, and now primarily electric fires her work. In 2015 Lindsey went back to school to earn an MFA, at the University of Arkansas. While in Arkansas, Kenyon and Lindsey grew their family and welcomed a baby boy, who now works alongside them in the studio. Upon graduating with her MFA, they decided to move back North to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Kenyon transitioned out of academia and into a full-time potter. Both Lindsey and Kenyon teach occasional classes at Michigan Technological University, as adjunct instructors in the art department. Lindsey was also a Visiting Assistant Professor, at Finlandia University. After years of moving and collecting studio materials and equipment, which were housed in their families’ homes and garages they were finally able to set up a studio for themselves. They now have a fully functioning studio with a kiln room. They teach workshops out of their studio and host home pottery sales. Along with numerous school tours, which they both love to give. They worked hard to get to where they are today and are grateful for all of those who opened up their studios to them, whether that be by residencies, as studio assistants, pottery sales, or just visits. 

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
There have been numerous challenges, more than I could name here in this article. The goal of trying to make real, genuine art work is a journey with struggles, dips and curves on that road. 

The largest obstacle was being in a place in our lives that would allow us to buy a house and set up at studio. This took many, many years. Through the years, we squirreled away studio equipment, such as wheels, kilns, bricks, etc., that we bought. Since we moved so often, we had to store all of this at our parents’ homes. It was a long process of setting up the studio. The space was originally a three-car uninsulated garage. The first step was to get rid of the third-garage door and put in a door and new windows. Next was getting the electric run, then came insulating the space. In 2020 Simon Levin came up with his apprentices and helped build the soda kiln in what is now the kiln room. 

Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Lindsey makes low-fried ceramic pieces in an electric kiln. She pulls from her background in painting. Her work is extremely colorful, and mark-making is an important element to the visual appeal. She develops visual tales that she explores through different avenues, from painting to sculpting them out of clay. She tends to fixate on a particular story or character and develops it through different iterations/tales. The characters that she makes up are hybrid animals. Some of them ae inspired by real genetically engineered animals. This lends its hand to the whimsical. She also introduces mixed media into her work. Using found objects, her cat’s whiskers and any kind of scrape material she can get her hands on. Since sharing a studio with a functional potter, she also makes functional work. Hand building the pieces they often have illustrations of charters/animals that can be found in her sculptures. Currently, she has been working with the idea of nesting, nature vs nurture, and how that can be applied to the fantastical animals that she has created. A large piece that has stemmed from this thought is a human-sized nest made out of ceramic sticks. There is a basket with fabric stripes and markers for the viewers to write on a piece of fabric what their idea of nesting is, whether that be good, bad, indifferent, empty, etc. The nest, through time, is transformed from a hard pile of ceramics sticks to a colorful and soft nest interwoven with fabric from the participants and their collective thoughts. 

Kenyon- I make utilitarian ceramics from porcelain and stoneware clays. Most of my work begins on a potters wheel and is then altered and added to using coils or slabs. I use slips and underglazes to build layers of visual information and then glaze over them to create a sense of depth. All of my current work is fired in a soda kiln to cone9/10. The insatiable need to work with my hands is the driving force of my craft. The pulse of my practice lies in the rhythm of making, and through repetition, the work evolves, changing slowly in response to each firing cycle. My hope is that my pots can elevate the everyday experience. 

How can people work with you, collaborate with you or support you?
Reach out to us through our websites or social media to take a tour of the studio, visit or for possible collaborations. We also sell work through various galleries, our studio, and online sales. Follow us on social media for updates on where and when to see our work. 

Contact Info:

• Website: http://www.lindseyaheiden.com/ and https://www.kenyonmhansen.com/
• Instagram: @lindseyheiden and @kenyonhansen
• Facebook: kenyon hansen clay

Image Credits
Kenyon Hansen
Lindsey Heiden