Leslie CAMPBELL

Born: 1949
Medium: Ceramics 
 
Leslie was raised surrounded by apricot orchards in what is now known as Silicon Valley. She migrated to northern California as part of the “back to the land” movement at the age of nineteen and joined an intentional community where she learned to garden, milk goats, and fix cars. 
 
Ten years later Leslie took a night class at the local Community College in ceramics and fell in love with clay. At the end of the year she was offered the lab technician job where she learned to mix glazes and fire kilns. Three years later she participated in a vocational program at the Mendocino Art Center where she was exposed to ceramics as an art form. During the summers she took workshops. There she began wood firing with her mentor Peter Von Wilken Zoom in a small sprung arch cross draft kiln. 
 
Leslie operated a studio and shop for many years in Mendocino where she made functional pots and colored clay tessellated tile for architectural projects in San Francisco. In 1986 she and a group of fellow potters founded the Northcoast Artist Cooperative Gallery in Fort Bragg California. She fired her first Anagama kiln with Doug Browe deepening her passion for the process. 
 
In 2017 under the tutelage of master kiln-builder Nick Schwartz, Leslie built her own wood-fired Anagama kiln. After more than twenty firings the kiln has proven to be a major influence on her work, as it evolves and adapts to the wide range of temperatures and ash effects throughout the kiln. Every firing informs the next round of pot making. 

The kiln is fired for eight days to 2350-2450 degrees. The firing of a large Anagama is a collaborative effort of 8-12 makers. It produces remarkable finishes and a special community of artists.