Brighton-Area Artist Spotlight: Pamela Day

Art has always been a part of Pamela Day's life.

“As a child, I liked to draw and I was really fascinated with the Detroit Institute of Arts,” Day said.

Day was also drawn to music, specifically the violin. While majoring in music at Eastern Michigan University, Day's interest in art took over. She soon switched her major to art with an emphasis in clay and metal. After earning a BFA in 1972, Day returned to EMU, where she earned a Master's of Art Education degree in 1978.

Day then landed a job teaching art in the Brighton Area School District.

“My family came from Brighton. When I got the job teaching in Brighton, I was thrilled. I felt like I was going home,” Day, who grew up in Detroit and now lives in Wixom, said.

For the first 21 of the 33 years Day taught in Brighton, she was stationed at Maltby and Scranton Middle Schools, where she was often the only teacher in the art department. She happily joined 4 fellow art teachers in the art department at Brighton High School for the last 12 years of her teaching career.

“I loved teaching middle school, but it was nice to have colleagues in the art field. People who understand what you're doing,” Day said.

That sense of community is what led Day to get involved with the in 1999. A founding member and past president, Day serves on the Board of Directors and chairs the Education Initiative and Art at CoBACH exhibit series.

“I love being part of the guild,” Day said. “We support and inspire one another, and there's nothing better than that.”

As a result of being involved with BAG, Day has joined two critique groups. She is also a regular attendee of BAG's , a Thursday evening gathering during which BAG artists work on, display, and sell their work.

Day's current work features figurative ceramic sculptures, a project that began while she was teaching art at Brighton High School. One of her students' assignments was to create an alter ego by sculpting a head from two clay pinch pots. Working alongside her students year after year, Day soon found herself with a collection of heads.

Many of the heads have a renaissance look, with some taking on the characteristics of a jester.

“My work is stylized realism,” Day said, noting the exaggerated features and off-kilter proportions of the sculptures. The characters, with their elongated necks, wide mouths and fleshy eyelids, look alike in form and feature, but Day says the resemblance isn't necessarily intentional.

“When I work with my hands, imagination and muscle memory take over,” Day said.

Each of the sculptures, which stand 9 – 24 inches tall, takes several weeks to create.

“I spend a lot of time sculpting,” Day said.

Once she is happy with the way a piece looks, Day fires in her kiln it twice. A delicate process, the first firing dries out the hollow sculpture. If the conditions aren't perfect, the sculpture will crack and break. If a piece survives the first firing, Day then applies an oxide stain to the piece and fires it a second time.

“The oxide stains fills in lines and deeper areas to create shadows,” Day said. “After that, I use colored pencil on the surface.”

Through a process she termed “scrumbling,” Day applies layer after layer of color to add even more dimension to her work.

The finished product is a one-of-a-kind three-dimensional ceramic sculpture that sells for several hundred to several thousand dollars.

Day, who also creates clay portraits, will be holding demonstrations at the Brighton Fine Arts and Acoustic Music Festival on Sunday, August 14 at 10 A.M. You can find her at the Brighton Art Guild booth. You can also view more of her work at the Pamela Day Studio website.