Lilach Lotan
Lilach Lotan Pottery is represented in nearly every province and territory across Canada and many galleries in the United States. Her website bursts with energy and enthusiasm.
by Bettina Matzkuhn, Craft Corner
 Lilach Lotan watched someone throw a pot one day when she was exploring the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design in her hometown of Jerusalem. She consequently enrolled in the Ceramics Design program and spent the next three years up to her elbows in clay. In 2003, Lotan and her husband Ron emigrated to Canada, settling in Nanaimo, B.C. They imagined, and still feel, that Vancouver Island is the best possible place to live.
Lotan says she is constantly engaged in trying to know herself better through her work. Primarily, she uses porcelain, citing its paleness as a way to focus on form. She makes a line of light fixtures that are an aggregate of small, thrown forms. Barnacle-like, they cling together, the light from behind playing with positive and negative shapes as well as our perception of porcelain. She performs variations on this theme, the small forms alternately elongated, slightly wavy or trumpet shaped. The material suggests the warmth and translucence of paper but traces of the throwing process remain in the faint rings on the small forms. In a darkened room, the fixtures are patterned dark on light and this is graphically reversed in bright daylight.
One of her first production lines were a series of egg-cups, and these remain a popular item. The cup's spindly legs appear to be struggling under the sheer weight of the egg. Their "pants", laced up the front with a cord, are bursting open as if Humpty Dumpty is literally getting too big for his britches. Her breadth of production – from minimal form to vessels that exude character – seems to be paying off. In both 2006 and 2007 Lotan was awarded the Niche award from the Rosen Group, organizers of the Philadelphia Buyers Market of American Craft, and publishers of NICHE and American Style magazines. She has also had work featured in Ceramics Monthly magazine and Lark Books' "500 Pitchers".
Lotan at one time produced bowls, platters, cups and tea-pots, the latter with considerable attitude. It tilts back either in surprise or in a show of exaggerated bravado. Even the pitcher, with its rounded bottom, snout in the air, and handle on hip, poses like an offended neighbour. Her candlesticks, goblets, salt and pepper shakers continue to imitate their quirky, spirited predecessors but dressed in a minimal "silky white" glaze as Lotan has moved on to focus on porcelain ceramic design. One vase embodies the positive shape around the negative of an imaginary, missing vase. The illusion is uncanny as one puts the flower stem through an opening in the top and into one at the bottom. The stem rests, surrounded by air in the shape of a vase. Other forms include a vase like a hollow screw, threads running around the exterior. A series of bowls and platters play with sewing analogies – zippers, buttons and buckles animate certain sections.
Lotan's husband Ron deserves special mention as a key partner in their business. He put his own career as a gemologist and jeweller aside to work full-time as Lotan's manager, public relations person, photographer and webmaster. She emphasizes that: "although the business is called 'Lilach Lotan pottery' it's in no way "my" business. We are equal partners in everything, and it is successful only because both of us put our talents together to make it work. My creative share is in no way more important then my partner's business skills. If it was just me creating things, we would have a house full of ceramics with no money to eat." This partnership allows her to focus entirely on production. Lotan says she enjoys every day that she spends in the studio. She keeps aside a slow month – usually December or January – when she "clears out the studio and clears out her head" to concentrate on new possibilities.
This year the Lotans took on two gift shows in Toronto and Edmonton. Next year they will go to the Philadelphia Buyer's Market of American Craft. Trade shows are conducted as a business relationship between her own business and the buyer for a shop or gallery, which suits her personality better, than a one on one relationship with a retail customer. Lilach Lotan Pottery is represented in nearly every province and territory across Canada and many galleries in the United States. Her website bursts with energy and enthusiasm.
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