When I made this teapot I was responding to a call for proposals for a national exhibition, “Celestial Seasonings: A Loose Interpretation II,” held February to June, 1997, at the Celestial Seasonings Corporate Headquarters Gallery in Boulder, Colorado. The format required the artist to choose one of their tea products and submit a drawing of their Teapot proposal. I went to our local food coop and looked at all their tea boxes, finally choosing “Mama Bear’s Cold Care Tea” because it had Koala Bears and Kangaroos on the box illustrations, and I thought they would fit into the Upright Ring Teapot format and would be fun and challenging to sculpt. After being accepted to the exhibition, I made this Teapot sculpture using that Celestial Seasonings product as the theme.

I made this Teapot for the exhibition, with Koala Bear mother and baby figures inside the ring and handle, and mother Kangaroo with her baby “joey” perched on the lid. I glazed the Teapot with a matte tan glaze printed with green and brown bars to suggest the desert and eucalyptus forest habitats of these two Australian animals. I thought the Teapot came out well, and it turned out to be the only piece in the exhibition that sold to a member of the public, although it was not selected by the jurors for an award. I was, however, ultimately uneasy with the composition, because outside of the constraints of the exhibition requirements there was no real reason in my mind to combine Kangaroo and Koala Bear figures in an Upright Ring Teapot composition. I decided in the future to make my one-of-a-kind Teapots without conforming to outside constraints, and try to find appropriate exhibition venues after completing the sculptural Teapot artwork I envisioned.

17” Tall x 14” Wide x 4” Deep
Cone 5 oxidation firing
This Teapot was purchased for a private collection inCharlotte, North Carolina.