The city is the one-time home of artist Picasso and is host to many of his works along with the Picasso College of Art. It is located in the area of Cannes and Nice, near Monaco.
Kiefer is among around a dozen artists chosen for the residency from applicants around the world.
She grew up in Japan, moving to the United States when she was 23, living at first in Utah. She later moved to Ohio, where she met her husband, Steven Kiefer.
She studied ballet beginning at age 3 and also played the organ and learned to knit, crochet and sew from her grandmother. During her last semester of study for an associate’s degree at Edison, Kiefer took a pottery class.
It changed her life.
“Clay in a way puts my mind away. Just making something, focusing on something, was how I kept my mind straight,” she said.
After Edison, Kiefer studied at Ohio Northern University in Ada, graduating with a degree in studio arts — ceramics. While a student, she was named the 2012 Association of Independent Colleges and universities Award of Excellence in the Visual Arts.
She works full time in the English as a Second Language program at Troy’s Concord Elementary School, teaches dance at a local studio, has a 17-year-old son and is on the Troy Arts Alliance board. She also is active in the Artists Against Hunger, a group that makes ceramic bowls for donations to support programs locally to feed children.
She discussed her works while showing off pieces in a small gallery set up in her home.
“I bloomed later, but, because it was later, I can see different things, and still grow,” she said.
The initial days of the residency program will have Kiefer studying the local clay in France and working to ensure she has the proper glaze recipe to obtain the color desired in her works. Her project will be creating a ceramic bas-relief three-dimensional tile installation commemorating an artistic exchange between Japan and France. The final week of the program will include a gallery show of the artists’ works.
“I am so grateful for this opportunity,” Kiefer said. “Six weeks is kind of long but, as a creative artist, six weeks is very short, too. With the French residency, I hope to grow more, to learn and create more.”
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