Anne Hirondelle (née Harvey; born 1944 in Vancouver, Washington) is an American ceramicist known for her approaches to both the form and function of her pieces.
Career Early in her career, she created ceramics that took the form of traditional commercial pottery, such as pitchers and jars. In recent years, she has shifted her approach to create works that are more sculptural and less functional. These abstract pieces may be semi-spheres with sections missing; a series of layered and overlapping arcs; or a coil that continuously loops back on itself, becoming a towering spiral.Hemp, Christine. "More Ways Than One." American Craft. April/May 2012 As such, her creative process frequently begins not with throwing or sculpting, but with drawing and planning.Dauer, Paul F. "Formal Balance in the Ceramics of Anne Hirondelle." Ceramics: Art and Perception. 2001.
Hirondelle now lives and works out of Port Townsend, WA, with her husband."Hallie Ford Museum of Art: Anne Hirondelle", Willamette University. Archived from the original on 2018-07-04. Retrieved 2026-02-13.
Education In 1966, Hirondelle graduated from the University of Puget Sound with a bachelor's degree in English."Anne Hirondelle" Smithsonian American Art Museum. Retrieved 7/20/2017 The following year, she graduated with an master's degree in counseling psychology from Stanford University then she served as the director of the University of Seattle's Young Women's Christian Association for five years."Stilled Life/ Frozen Motion: Ceramic Art--Anne Hirondelle", Numèro Cinq. retrieved June 1, 2017.
From 1973 until 1974, Hirondelle attended law school at the University of Washington, intending to work for women's issues. During her time there, she enrolled in ceramics classes at the Factory of Visual Arts in Seattle."Delibearations",Ceramics Monthly Vol. 34 No. 6, Jun/Jul/Aug, 1986 She decided to quit law school and she began attending the University of Washington's School of Art in 1974, earning her BFA in 1976.Gretchen Adkins. "The Aquaria of Anne Hirondelle" Ceramics: Art and Perception No. 31, 1998
Career After time spent creating pieces inspired by traditional ceramics and architecture, Hirondelle began looking for ways to revitalize the production process."More Ways Than One: Ceramist Anne Hirondelle dedicated decades to perfecting the vessel. Then she started taking it apart". American Craft Council. Retrieved 7/20/2017.Hemp, Christine. "More Ways Than One". American Craft. April/May 2012. As a first alternative to glazing her ceramic pieces, Hirondelle ceased glazing them at all. Later, she began applying acrylic or latex paints to the pieces, sometimes painting the entire piece, sometimes painting only the lip or edge of the piece, preferring to allow the white clay to stay untouched.
She regularly addresses feminine issues in her work. Hirondelle's ceramic series "Outurn," which she created in the early 2000s, is anatomically suggestive of the vagina. In another series, titled "Tumble," Hirondelle used color to suggest women's sexuality: the outer edges of the pieces remain uncolored, but the inside crevices are rendered in vivid paint.Kangas, Matthew. "De-Constructing Anne Hirondelle." Ceramics Monthly. May 2009. One of her pieces, "Abouturn Grid," was purchased by Centrum in Port Townsend.
Awards
Hirondelle's work has earned her several recognitions throughout her career. In 1988, she was a recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in Visual Arts."Anne Hirondelle" . Smithsonian American Art Museum. Retrieved on 7/20/2017 In 1993, she received First Place in Women in Washington: The First Century. She was a finalist for the Seattle Art Museum's Betty Bowen Award in 2004. Five years later, she received the Twining Humber Award for Lifetime Artistic Achievement."About.", Anne Hirondelle. Retrieved on June 1, 2017. In 2014, she was one of only four artists chosen to participate in the Joan Mitchell Foundation's Creating a Living Legacy, a program designed to help artists preserve, document, and archive their work."Creating a Living Legacy (CALL)". Joan Mitchell Foundation. Retrieved on June 6, 2017.
Museum collections Her works are held in the following collections:
Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ Boise State University, Boise, ID Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, CA Fine Arts Museum, San Francisco, CA Fuller Craft Museum, Brockton, MA Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA Museum of Arts and Design, New York, NY Tacoma Art Museum, Tacoma, WA University of Iowa Stanley Museum of Art, Iowa City, IA
References