Bio:
Gallagher studied ceramics with Ka Kwong Hui at Rutgers University and studio art in the MFA Program at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn. She earned her MFA from the University of Puget Sound, where she met John Benn. On Harstine Island in Puget Sound, south of Seattle, Washington, John and Colleen fire in two wood burning kilns: a salt kiln with a Bourry-style firebox and a 25-foot-long anagama hybrid kiln, the Mongrelgama. She is a professor at South Puget Sound Community College in Olympia WA. Her work has won awards in the US and internationally and can be seen in private collections, museums and public art projects.
On beautifully forested Harstine Island in Washington’s Puget Sound,
Artist Statement:
I do a lot of surface decoration on my pieces before they enter the kiln. I draw with flashing slips and oxides. Decoration is a combination of underglaze painting, wax resist line drawing and overglaze painting. I am trying to achieve a depth of layers in the image which cannot be “read” at first glance but which reveals itself to the viewer over time.