Porcelain Perfect - Page 4

Shalene, who was born in Santa Barbara, studied art at UC Berkeley and got an MFA in 1997 at California College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland.

Among her instructors at Cal was Richard Shaw, one of the founders of the California Funk school and a master of trompe l'oeil ceramics that tell a story. A recent, humorous yet harrowing series shows seashore detritus arrayed on plates: seashells, bottle caps, dead birds.

"He introduced me to the art of mold making," Shalene says.

Shalene worked with another legendary clay artist, Viola Frey, who taught at CCAC, and whose at-times cartoon-like take on women and men proved influential.

"The women that Viola would create," Shalene points out, "were these tall figures that were very lean but very powerful. And then the businessmen that she created were…being vulnerable. So she was twisting that narrative of what it means to be male or what it means to be female, just like flipping it."

Shalene spent the next decade creating art, directing a small gallery in Oakland, and teaching, including at the Richmond Art Center and later the Oregon College of Art and Craft.

She also attended artists' residencies, where artists are given a chance to focus on their work in a supportive community. One of these, in 2006 was the Archie Bray Foundation in Helena, one of the ceramics institutions that has made Montana a go-to place for artists in clay.

Following that, Shalene did two years in residence at the Clay Studio in Missoula. "I started working on narratives that were a little more complex, and weaving in clues about what was going on," she says. "That's when my work took the turn to be what it is today."

These days Shalene creates ceramics in the garage studio of a home she shares with her husband in Missoula, which is like the Berkeley of Montana.

She also has been the executive director of the Clay Studio for the past 11 years. Shalene enjoys the role, which is full-time plus, but wishes she had more time to work in her studio.

"Shalene is important with Montana artists. She has influence," says art collector Sandra Henderson, who says Shalene does a great job running a complex art center. "She's created a happy place for artists."

Lisa Simon says: "Where there is an event, Shalene shows up. She has a very busy life, running the art center, but she makes time for the artists in the community and shows up at openings and talks. It's meaningful for artists to see her there. She's one of the key art pillars."

"Shalene stands out because she has that kind of California style," Simon adds, saying that Shalene is known for bicycling through town and for her striking appearance in vintage mid-century fashion.

But it's not about flash, her friends say.

"When you're talking with Shalene," Renee Brown says, "she looks in your eyes, she's looking at you, [and hears] not just what you're saying, but what's under what you are saying.

"There's a smile in her eyes. It's as though she knows a secret that even you don't know."

• For more on Shalene Valanzuela and her art, visit shalene.com. In California, her work can be viewed at the John Natsoulas Gallery in Davis: natsoulas.com.

Photography: Shalene Valenzuela, Kayla McCormick, Chris Autio