Hillary Kane

For Hillary Kane, place is of essence.  Over the years, the map coordinates of home has shifted across countries and continents and delivered a richness in languages and cultures, inspiration and challenges that permeate her creative practice.  Originally having studied painting and printmaking (in the States and in France), it was her work with local farmers in a remote village in west Cameroon that triggered her gut-pull to the medium of clay.  An immersion at Penland School of Crafts solidified this interest and subsequent experiences from New England to New Mexico initiated and strengthened her passion for wood-firing in particular. 

Many moons and adventures later, the tidal pull of the world led her ultimately to settle in Bali, Indonesia where she now continues to focus her creativity in both clay and paint, enjoying the dynamic of two very different mediums and their possible confluence.  Wood-fire ceramics has dominated her practice and led her to numerous residencies and conferences globally, as well as to pioneer several wood-firing kilns in Bali. 

In 2010 she co-founded Gaya Ceramic Arts Center (Ubud, Bali) and has since been directing its growth: developing an international workshop program and artist residency, hosting as well as instructing, and ever continuing with the making process.  Included in that creativity has been the life-changing journey of raising twin daughters.  At very present, she lives a bi-hemispheric lifestyle, splitting time between the lush and heady tropical backdrop of her island life and the cyclical seasons of her New England upbringing-- embracing the duality of home in two disparate worlds; searching with her artwork for a fluency between them.