INGRID LILLIGREN
Canned Ham, porcelain, crystalline and high fire glazes, eggshells, 13" x 12" x 6", 2010

Ingrid Lilligren, named after a family friend who was an artist, was born in Springfield, Ohio. She earned a B.F.A. at the University of Wisconsin in River Falls in 1980. She received her M.F.A. in 1986 from Claremont Graduate School in Claremont, California where she studied with Paul Soldner. After teaching at colleges in California, she moved to Iowa where she is now a professor at Iowa State University as well as Chair of their Department of Integrated Studio Arts.

The artist wrote this about her work: "Crystalline glazes have a mystique about them - they are difficult to produce and erratic in nature.  When they do work, they are gaudy, spectacular and mysterious.  Each zinc based glaze contains minerals that produce the colors and to an extent, the textures characteristic of these glazes.  I thought these glazes might be well suited to the organic, biomorphic forms I make.  They appeared to call out for a decorative finish, something elaborate and juicy.  As the crystals appear randomly on the surface of the form, I think of them as recalcitrant manifestations of joyous play, neither here nor there, occurring in unexpected locations.  The addition of eggshells to several of these sculptures is a means of echoing the accumulation of crystals in some of the glazed areas, layers of real-time texture that has a similar form and size to the crystals produced during the firing."

Ingrid Lilligren's website