By Katy Savage, Standard Staff
Anna Hranovska Vincelette studied her pottery. ‘This is candied, like caramel, sweetened up, like, sugared,’ the Ukrainian woman said.
The handmade clay turtle she was referring to had an intricate design on its back. If you looked close there were two eyes and a mouth — a human face that nearly blended in with the design of the turtle’s shell.
The artist was proud of her work — one of the first pieces she’s made where she felt truly free.
She was at EarthStar Pottery Gallery and Studio in North Hartland last Friday — the studio where she finally found a community to open up to.
“Everybody is like family. Everybody is helping each other. It’s very easy to meet people,” Vincelette said.
Vincelette was born in Ukraine and moved to Russia for about 12 years before coming to the United States to be with her husband, who she’s since divorced.
She started going to EarthStar in the late summer. Before being introduced to the small hand-building pottery studio, Vincelette felt ‘squeezed.’
She was “squeezed” when she was living in Russia and teaching ceramics where there was no freedom to express herself. She worked for a municipal pottery studio and she had to conform to Russian rules.
Vincelette wouldn’t go into detail or reveal what rules she had to follow for fear of retribution from the Russian government.
She came to America 10 years ago and had a small art studio in the base- ment of a Hanover apartment. She was adjusting to American culture with no money, no work and no way to transport herself. She didn’t talk to anybody. She felt isolated.
For a long time she didn’t have a place to be an artist.
“I thought, ‘I’m not sociable,’” she said. “You feel all the time like it’s not important. You try to shrink yourself, your needs, your wishes, your dreams. You try to shrink yourself.”
For the first time in years, Vincelette feels neither cramped nor isolated and neither is her artwork, which is growing larger and more detailed than ever before.
She’s found a community of artists who support her.
“When I come here, there’s a different me,” she said standing among her artwork at the North Hartland studio. “I start to grow.”
Her new artist community, in awe by her talent, is committed to making sure Vincelette grows. They’ve offered her rides, free materials, studio space and a place to live.
Potter Joie Finely of Sharon introduced Vincelette to the EarthStar Pottery two months ago, about the time Vincelette started working at Tip Top Pottery in White River Junction, also with Finley’s help.
Tip Top Pottery owner Amy Robb almost immediately offered Vincelette a room in her home, free from the mold that was growing in Vincelette’s previous apartment in Hanover.
“It was amazing that Anna walked into my life,” said Robb, who went to graduate school to get involved in giving repressed women more opportunities. Robb has also invited Cambodian women to live in her home to further their education. So when Vincelette needed help, Robb couldn’t turn her back.
Vincelette speaks in a thick accent that’s hard to make out, but she’s articulate, usually using colorful language like, “butters my heart” if something pleases her. She reads English, but she can’t write it.
Vincelette can’t drive. She never learned how because in her home overseas buses people everywhere they need to go.
Here, she’s dependent on a small community of supporters.
EarthStar Pottery owner Barbara Lane gives Vincelette studio time and materials (like clay and glazes) even though Vincelette is not a student. Vincelette also gets a ride to and from the North Hartland studio 3-4 times a week from any artist that’s available to take her.
“We all sponsor her,” Lane said.
Vincelette was one of three new artists featured at the annual EarthStar Pottery Season of Light Holiday Gala that was held on Nov. 13 and 14. Twenty-nine potters were there in total to showcase their work, which range from functional dishes and pots to sculptures and obscure designs.
The artists have myriad backgrounds and professions. They come from Bradford, Norwich, Grantham, New Hampshire, Woodstock and other places.
‘It’s an opportunity for them to meet each other…it’s an opportunity for me to celebrate them and to show off their work,’ Lane said.
Lane has helped eight of her students set up their own studios. Some had no clay experience before coming to her, but like Vincelette, blossomed under Lane’s tutelage.
All of the art at EarthStar Pottery is made by hand. There is no wheel and all of the artists have their own style. Vincelette’s work stands out because of its exquisite exterior detail.
Her work is layered and there’s a sense of magical energy to it. It’s also dark. Almost all of her pieces have faces that appear sad. Most of her work has hidden compartments.
“I asked her, ‘What (do the hidden compartments) mean?’” Robb said. “She goes, ‘Perhaps that says something about my personality. There are pieces that I keep secret.”
Vincellete’s life has completely shifted and her art is finally getting exposed. She’s sharing her work for the first time.
“It’s a birth of sorts. It’s a coming out party, so to speak,” Robb said. “I’m really excited for her. There’s something very inspirational to see somebody come awake. Come into the light.”
As she gets more comfortable, her artwork has gotten larger and more detailed.
“I think her work is really ready for big time. I’d love to see her in a city teaching in a high-end gallery,” Lane said.
Vincelette unpacked a box of her artwork last Friday at EarthStar. There was a frog and a fish. A raven was in the kiln. All of her pieces have detailed backs. Sometimes she ties beads and strings to them and puts cryptic faces on them so people remember animals are human, too, she said.
‘You don’t know what fish feel, what bugs feel,” she said. The nature lover expects they feel human emotions, like pain, too. “It’s life — respect for life.’
Vincelette said Robb saved her life.
Vincelette speaks about her art as though it’s part of her, as natural as one of her limbs. It’s her way of expressing herself.
“I don’t know what I’d be (without it),” she said.
This article first appeared in the November 12, 2015 edition of the Vermont Standard.