Dorese, Alyss


	Sculptures by Alyss


	I studied painting at the Art Student's League in NYC under Chaim Gross and Moses Soyer. I stopped painting for a period of twelve years, instead establishing a career in book publishing. In 1985, while serving on a jury panel, I by chance met a potter who encouraged me to go back to art and try working in clay. I learned the wheel and continued to pot until 1992, when I moved from New York to Palm Springs, Ca. There I enrolled in College of the Desert and began taking classes from Professor Ron Evans, an incredible man who after more than 30 years of teaching has the same enthusiasm now that he had when he first began. Professor Evans encouraged me as I started to alter wheel forms and combine them with hand and slab building and he continues to encourage now as I alter my pots into animal forms


	The Zebra is from my anal retentive period. I intended to use a low fired white glaze then wax a stripped pattern over it and apply a black glaze on top. Instead I applied the black glaze first and then inadvertently waxed the whole sculpture. As a result, I spent hours scrapping and melting off wax stripes and applying white glaze. From this I learned to fire a piece twice when I need to remove wax or to use latex instead of wax. In ceramics, the learning curve is often more like a learning cliff.

The sheep is also from my anal retentive period. All those tiny coils attached to the body....never again!!!

Big Horn sheep are an endangered species here in the deserts of southern California, so this was my attempt to honor them. The piece blew up in the kiln, but the head stayed intact, so I was able to place it peering out between two rocks.

The ferocious animal on the left is based on Sendak's "Where The Wild Things Are." It is my son's favorite childhood book. I can't wait to read it to my grandson.

All I can say about the bear lying on his back is: Grin and Bear it. Another title for him is Koo-che-koo-che-koo.




	The camel is called I'd Walk A Mile for a Camel. Ever so often, when one of my smoker friends is banished from the house, I find a cigarette placed in the camel's mouth. The Koala was born to fit the forked branch I found that it now hugs..

A friend from New York came out to the desert a few years ago and we went hiking in the canyons. On our way back, rather than retrace our steps, I wanted to cross over a rill of water to shorten our return journey. Her response was: "And wet my Reeboks?!?" So we retraced our steps and added quite a few miles to our hike. This has become a standing joke between us. Whenever she hesitates taking a risk, either one of use says, "And wet my reboks??" When she returned to New York, she took a risk and got herself a tiny Yorkie, who likes to sit on top of her Reeboks.

After seeing the movie Jurrasic Park, I thought I would create a dinosaur--but the "drag on" came out of it.

The English Bulldog is based on a friend's dog; I failed to capture the drool, tho.

"Yo Quiero, Taco Bell" holds a clay taco. The Chi is paying homage to one of America's more popular commercials.




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My Rhino sculpture won the Palm Spring's Museum Creativity Award. The rhino was one of my the first pieces as I started to explore different textures and oxides.

I have also shown at Dos Damas Gallery and Women In Art.

I refer to my animal sculptures as low maintenance and sell them as outdoor garden art. My commissioned work comes with or without cow pies.

Alyss Dorese
Dorese@ix.netcom.com


	last updated November 9, 2003