Shane Brodie

Ceramic Sculptor and potter

Sculpture, pottery & Tile

Statement

Currently, my main goal as an artist is to communicate what I and other queer and trans people feel and experience. I express this through representational work and more abstract work with curvature, gesture, and junctures. I particularly love bas reliefs which are both 2D and 3D, in-between, and liminal.

Art CV/Bio

I was born in Minnesota and raised everywhere. When people ask where I'm from, I'm not sure how to answer them, but I have spent a lot of time in the wilds of Canada, Alaska, Hawai'i and the West Coast of the Lower48. I'm a sensualist, sculptor, potter, tile maker, ceramic studio tech, community ceramics teacher, fiber artist descending from Scottish weavers, a radio host, a multi-issue activist, a documentarian, and a genderqueer trans man (he/they).
I started socially and medically transitioning about 30 years ago in the bad old days and I am very sad to see that we are repeating those same mistakes of social harassment and state oppression of trans people.

EDUCATION
I have a GED, an associate degree from a community college, an undergraduate degree in geology and a graduate degree in theology. Additionally, I have less formal education in cob building, wood carving, knife making, raw wool processing, bookmaking, baking (mostly traditional Viennese and French pastry and cakes), and cheesemaking. I love making different kinds of cheese because it's part art and science.
Even though I have a formal education, I'm big into "unschooling" and alternative and community based learning. When I visit libraries, I often leave with a dozen books.

CERAMICS
Within my ceramics practice, I've taken sculpture and glaze chemistry courses with well-known Bay Area artists, and made and sold commissioned tiles, functional pottery sets, and life-sized figurative sculptures. I've also completed work exchanges as a studio tech and as a teaching assistant in welding safety and beginning wheel thrown pottery community college courses. I've also reclaimed tons of clay as part of my duties and because I'm poor! Oh do you have a huge vat of porcelaneous or stoneware clay that needs to be reclaimed, pugged or wedged? Well...I'm your guy.

KILNS
I've loaded and unloaded electric and gas kilns at busy college and community studios and helped monitor wood, soda and salt firings. A 50+ year old salt kiln needed repairs so I welded steel plates to it so that a community college ceramics department could keep it in use. I also helped construct, prep wood for, and fire a woodfired kiln with a Bourry style firebox.

SHOWINGS
I've shown and sold work at three meetings of the annual California Conference for the Advancement of Ceramic Arts in Davis CA, a couple of Rocky Mountain Equality pridefests in Colorado, at several municipal, open studio and artwalk events, and was picked for one of the Slice of the Bay Area shows at the Pence Gallery juried by members of the Sacramento Arts Commission. I particularly love ceramic conferences where I see old friends and instructors and revel in the barely controlled chaos of dozens of impromptu galleries and demos.

Contact Info

Please feel free to contact me or check out my social media pages via the buttons below. Thanks for stopping by!

For information about some of the activism I've been involved with see my activism page at (...coming soon!)