Jenny Keller, a parishioner of the Cathedral of St. Paul in St. Paul, has been a potter for nearly 10 years. She found her talent for pottery when she was in high school.
“Out of all artistic mediums, I think pottery (has) the highest failure rate,” Keller told “Practicing Catholic” co-hosts Leah Heselton and Father Tom Margevicius for an episode that debuts at 7 p.m. May 8 on Relevant Radio 1330 AM.
“When you are making a pot and it doesn’t work out, you just scrap the clay and you can reclaim it, start again, create something entirely new,” Keller said. “As long as you know that process of reclamation, you’re always able to keep going.”
Pottery is a companion to Keller’s full-time career, she said. She has a studio in her St. Paul basement and a kiln at her parent’s house in Andover.
“I have a great system for bringing pots between my house in St. Paul and then 35 minutes north to the kiln in Andover,” Keller said. “(I) kind of built a little egg carton system in my car where I’ve carved out dry pieces of foam to fit exactly my car so I can put the pots back there.”
Keller said she designed her products to be used in common, functional ways in people’s day-to-day lives.
“When I’m producing mugs, cups, plates, bowls, vases, all these different things, they’re designed to use every day and designed to integrate into your life in a really useful way,” Keller said. “I don’t find much value in making things that you’re only going to pick up once a month or (that) sits on your shelf for a seasonal time. I want something that you’re going to pick up every day.”
Keller said she’s heard from customers who purchased her pottery and appreciated that her pottery is used “in these really special moments that become part of your everyday” such as mugs for morning coffee or vases for flowers.
Keller will be selling her pottery at Art-A-Whirl, an annual open artist studio tour in Northeast Minneapolis, May 15-17 at St. Clement.
“This is my fourth or fifth year (being) a part of Art-A-Whirl,” Keller said. “It has become such a highlight of May for me, and working up to it, there’s about 20 artists that are going to be at St. Clement’s, all of them Catholic. Art-A-Whirl, in general, is the largest open studio tour in North America. It is a huge event. There are over 100 locations. St. Clement’s in particular is one of the largest ones. There (are) over 1,000 artists participating. … So, St. Clement’s is a really great way to get your fix of Catholic art and see what kinds of diverse and beautiful things everyone is making.”
To hear more from Keller about her pottery, listen to this episode of “Practicing Catholic,” which repeats at 1 p.m. May 9 and 2 p.m. May 10.
Produced by Relevant Radio and the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, the latest episode also featured transitional deacons, Deacons Steven Lang and Charles DeReuil, in an interview about their journeys to the priesthood.
Listen to interviews after they have aired at practicingcatholicshow.com or choose a streaming platform at Spotify for Podcasters.
