Diane Mayo: Generic Monkeys, Mysterious Dogs

Blanche and Ziggy, Diane Mayo's German shepherd and African hunting dog, curled up, mirror images, at opposite ends of a couch in her Montauk house.

"They're like clones," Ms. Mayo remarked. It seemed right that she should have two small, friendly dogs living with her, since her pottery contains so many images of animals, particularly dogs.

Photo: Morgan McGivern

Ms. Mayo and her husband, Rex Lau, a painter, live in a low, long, red wooden house that she suspects may once have been a kennel, on former Carl Fisher property behind the Montauk Manor. The house doubles as studio space.

Bean & Beluga

Next door, a huge, beat-up white barn serves as residence and work space for a series of visual artists and writers who have been awarded monthlong summer residencies at the William Flanagan Memorial Foundation for Creative Persons, as Edward Albee's foundation is formally known.

Ms. Mayo and Mr. Lau have been living next door and keeping an eye on things for Mr. Albee for over 15 years.

Diane Mayo's name began to be known to the public in 1983, when she published a scathingly funny illustrated story called "Murder at Bean & Beluga," an Edward Goreyesque tale based on her experiences as a counterwoman at Dean & DeLuca, then in East Hampton.

Smoked Weasels

Her drawings of Bean & Beluga, showing counters piled high with croissants, arugula, and some more unorthodox items such as a "chocolate Hindenburg" and a barrel full of "smoked weasels," ring as true today as they did when the book was published.

Ms. Mayo bears a strong resemblance to the somewhat younger woman portrayed in that book - closely cropped hair, round face - and in her manner and soft speech she retains the mien of a graduate student.

She began as a painter, but gave it up in the mid-1980s, deciding that clay was more satisfying to work with. It "made me feel freer," she said.

The Raku Method

After an initial bisque-firing, which sets the form of the vessel, she glazes her pieces, then quickly fires them, using the ancient Japanese raku method.

The vessel is removed from the charcoal-fired kiln and placed in a garbage can lined with newspapers. As the paper burns, it sucks oxygen from the air, and the glazing on the pots crackles, lending the surface a delicate, time-worn texture.

Ms. Mayo's craftsmanship is immediately apparent in the form and facade of her pots. But what makes them distinctive is their multi layered, subtle coloring, and their use of animal imagery.

The animals often seem mysterious - like their real-life counterparts, said the potter.

"I like using animals in my work because of their mystery. They have a consciousness, and they look at you, and you look back at them, but you never really know what they're thinking."

Dogs peek from small, window-like holes. Black lemurs with long, fat tails sit, paws on knees, on the rim of a bowl, as if surveying the surrounding landscape. A dog's head rises from the top of a jar, looking formal, a bow tied around its neck.

The works have an air of quiet whimsy. A series of "generic monkeys," as Ms. Mayo calls them, scramble across a pot.

Element of Chance

The animals seem somewhat stylized as well. "They're real, but not totally real," Ms. Mayo said.

Her pieces are "decorative rather than functional," she said, adding that they are inspired by ancient Cypriot pottery.

"The potters on Cyprus made everyday pots and vessels, but they also made decorative pots," Ms. Mayo explained. "It was as if, when they'd finished their practical work, they'd make something just for the joy of it, something to be admired rather than used."

Where color is concerned, said the potter, a certain element of chance comes into play. "It's a part of the process that I enjoy," she said. "No matter how you plan - and you do know, fairly closely, how the colors will come out - you're always a little bit surprised."

Getting The Glazes Right

Ms. Mayo's work has attracted enough attention over the years to allow her to "make a modest living" from her work.

Recently, she began making stoneware bowls and mugs, vessels that have all the decorative felicities of her ceramic works, and are functional to boot.

"I didn't do stoneware for a long time," Ms. Mayo said. "I didn't think you could get good, strong colors into the pieces. But after experimenting, I finally got the glazes right."

Several At Once

She works at her craft every day. "I have a routine," she said. "I take the dogs for a walk on the beach in the morning, and then I get to work. There's always something in progress."

When she painted, she found herself concentrating on a single painting until she felt it was finished. With ceramics, she can have several projects going at once.

Ms. Mayo is friendly with many other artists who live on the East End, but she especially values the quiet of Montauk in the off-season, and is content to work methodically at her craft.

"I want them to be objects that have their own special presence," she said.