Randi Kish

Randi Kish retired from a lifelong career as a public school art teacher in the Saratoga Springs City School District in June 2010. She has been working as a full-time ceramic artist in her studio at the Saratoga Clay Arts Center since. Her work has been exhibited in galleries throughout the region.

Artist Statement

“My series titled Narrations is about remembrance. Each vessel or sculpted elephant speaks a story. Hand-carved surfaces, each unique, use pattern, texture, and symbols to create a sense of timelessness and mystery. The designs contain a visual language that is both sensed or implied, revealed or unseen, intended or imagined. With a word, a phrase, a symbol, carved and hidden in the surface, a story emerges, often requiring searching in order to discover what is embedded into the design. My work encourages the viewer to look closely, to touch, to examine in order to uncover the mystery and story within. Each container is meant to hold that which is both sacred and ordinary. Embracing and preserving a memory is to give honor to a life and spirit. Each vessel is wheel-thrown. The forms are simple and classic, and designed to appear unearthed or archaeological, both old and contemporary. The carved elephants are meant to serve as a remembrance, of a grand and majestic species, as a celebration of the beauty and intelligence of these amazing creatures, and as a memorial to their lives, currently facing a tragic crisis of survival.”