Artist Bio: Lynn Le Tourneau

Growing up near New York City gave Lynn the opportunity to absorb great art. She learned how to draw nudes at the Arts Students League and was influenced by the Impressionists.

Lynn graduated high school in the late sixties during the explosive time of the Vietnam War, civil rights movement and love-ins. She studied at the Boston Museum School for one year, dropped out and hitch-hiked across the USA to discover her American roots. This journey changed her point of view and soon after, she delved into an in-depth search of truth.

It was a full ten years of evolution - a decade of self discovery and soul development. She attended college at Antioch University in San Francisco to study Transpersonal Psychology. Upon graduation, Lynn began work as a counselor. She also returned to her love of art and, with great gusto, began to sculpt the human form in clay at Fort Mason, San Francisco. For twelve years, she sculpted the infinite expressions of the figure inspired by Auguste Rodin, Glenna Goodacre and Jane Dedecker. She learned how to see accurately and carve interpretively.

It is significant for Lynn that clay is of the element Earth. The nature of clay is so yielding, malleable and forgiving. Beyond the medium itself, she experiences each figure as a soul journey, carving and forming the clay, leaving the strokes and textures of the tool. For Lynn, this evokes the emotions of the figure's spirit. The alchemical process continues using the Fire element to fire the clay as hard as stone.

Some of these pieces are Raku fired. Raku is a special ceramic firing process. Using special glazes, the sculpture is fired again in a propane fired raku kiln up to 1800 degrees. Immediately, the piece is removed and placed in a sealed container filled with combustibles such as sawdust, newspaper or pine needles. Fire erupts resulting in an oxygen reduction causing magical, unpredictable colors to emerge along with a smoke effect.