MaPó Kinnord grew up in Cleveland, Ohio and received her first training in ceramics through Cleveland’s Quaker-founded alternative high school, the School on Magnolia. She apprenticed with several production potters before receiving her Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Massachusetts College of Art in 1984 and a Master of Fine Arts degree from Ohio State University in 1994. Arriving in New Orleans in 1995, MaPó a Professor of Art at Xavier University. She currently serves on the board of NCECA as GAP director advocating for clay community and as a founding member of Crescent City Clay Connection clay group.
MaPó has taught workshops at Haystack Mountain School of Crafts in Maine and the Penland School of Craft in North Carolina, as well as the Kambe no Sato Arts Center in Matsue, Japan. She has researched the traditional and contemporary art of Ghana and produced video documentation of the traditional pottery, kiln building and ceramic architecture of Northern Ghana, West Africa.
Making
I believe making work should come from the heart first, then the body and head. My hands work in coordination with the act of listening. I ask questions of myself as I work and my hands answer. I am so grateful that clay has been the major vehicle of my life’s journey.
Teaching
My goal as a teacher is to connect the skills that students are acquiring in the classroom to their aspirations for a happy life. I often compare the classroom to a gym where they are working out the muscles of their mind and character. The level of their engagement is equal to the amount of abilities (through practice and effort) earned in the “workout”. I ask students to review their relationship to the act of working and struggle. Work can be joyful, exhilarating, encouraging and a friendship building process. It is through what we take on each day that we find and build a sense of purpose and happiness.
Art is a self-expressive topic. Understanding and making art is a practice of creative seeing, thinking and action. The process is designed to open the heart and mind to possibilities.
My greatest strength as a teacher is my love for the act of creating. I teach by example. In the studio, students see how I work. They see how I embrace problem solving like an addictive computer game. Each demonstration is a responsive act of being in the moment where intuitive and methodical practices come together. My goal is to have each student unlock hidden gifts, find new strengthens, engage opportunities to share, and reach new levels of self-awareness.
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