Member Profile – Frank Yensan

I have been playing in the mud my entire life. My mother is one of those people whose floor was so clean, one could eat off it. Her son, on the other hand, made a bee line for every mud puddle he saw. When I began at the Maryland Institute College of Art, I took ceramics as an elective. Within two weeks, I had declared my intentions to make ceramics my career. A BFA under my belt in 1988, a formal apprenticeship, a couple unofficial apprenticeships, and an MFA in Ceramics completed in 1993, I thought I was ready to set the clay world on fire. Life and responsibilities gave me a 28 year sabbatical from setting that clay world on fire. In 2019 I was lucky enough to find my way back to the mud puddle. I like to see the clay that the piece is made from. I like to see the hand that made the piece. I like to see the fire that turned the dirt to stone. I like to see the process that made the piece. I am highly process obsessed. I dig and process native clay. Most ceramicists buy their clay ready to use. I prefer to process the raw clay even though it is a lot of extra work. To really complicate things, I fire most of my work in a wood kiln. Electric kilns use a start button. Firing a wood kiln requires hours of feeding stick after stick into the kiln. The ash accumulates on the pots and the flame leaves its mark, where no two pots are ever the same. I love the process.