Content Warning: This article contains discussions of sexual exploitation and grooming within a mentorship relationship, as well as abuse of trust and power, and the impact of these experiences on the author. It also examines patterns of enabling and accountability within the wood-firing community. Reader discretion is advised.
At the end of 2020, I reached out to East Creek Art to see if they’d take me on as a resident. In Willamina, Oregon, there’s a roughly forty-year-old, forty-foot-long anagama, based on a ninth-century Korean climbing kiln design. After a few emails back and forth with the owner, we had worked out a three-month-long work-trade, and I moved there in January of 2021.
