Kiln Cat God

The kiln gods were made during the firings of the soda kiln and placed on the kiln to dry and guard it's contents.

Stoneware soda fired lidded jar

Links

This is a self-portait Holly did in Begining Printing at Clemson.

From the top

This blog is being created to tell the world about the life and work of the late artist Holly Lynn Ensign. I'll start from the beginning:
Holly was born a week before Christmas in the year of the bicentennial in Durham, NC. She was the 6th child, already having one brother, Chris and four sisters, Joy, Noelle, Madeline and Catherine. The family moved several places over the years eventually ending up in North Haven, CT where Holly spent most of her youth. There were five more children to come; Ava, Annie, Alexandra, Andrew, and Eric.
Attending first through eleventh grade in the small suburban town, Holly was a very quiet yet precocious child. Every year of school Mr. And Mrs. Ensign would get at least one phone call from Holly's teachers expressing concern that she did not speak in class. Her parents always told them she speaks when she has something to say and it's something worth listening to when she does.
From the very start Holly enjoyed and excelled in the arts, taking many classes through high school, including painting, ceramics. And photography. This continued through college. The Ensign clan moved to Liberty, SC her senior year of high school where she graduated several months later. Holly chose to go to Clemson University first majoring in English, but quickly changing over to fine arts.
The four years at Clemson were a huge jump in Holly's artistic endeavors. While photography had been an early interest she soon found her real passion for ceramics and sculpture. Focusing on functional pottery Holly completed her senior studio and graduated with a Bachelors in Fine Arts.
The story takes a strange and tragic turn at this point. Holly, with a sincere passion for kite flying, finally got her request to fly her kite on the third hole at Augusta National. Excited about the approved request Holly was not going to pass up the opportunity. Unfortunately the only time slot was a stormy summer afternoon, Holly was only on the course a short time when she was struck down and killed by lighting. In retrospect she probably should have rethought wearing the bangle bracelets and her collection of Laurel Birch pins.
As an avid collector of Holly's work, I will later post pictures and further dicussion of the exsisting pieces.
Disclaimer: some things may be fictionalized for my entertainment(example: struck by lighting may be substituted for got married).