Twenty-five year old Seattle artist Eva Funderburgh has been studying ceramics, pottery and sculpture for most of her life.

She was born in Seattle, the daughter of two microbiologists, and moved to the midwest when she was just a few months old. Growing up in Manhattan, Kansas, and then in Pittsburgh, she found a spark in high school pottery class which burned into a flame at Carnegie Mellon University, where she accomplished a double major in chemistry and fine art.

She also went on to spend half of her junior year in college studying at Nagoya Zokei University of Art and Design in Japan.

But it seems like these past few years, since returning to Seattle and hooking up with Kitsap ceramics masters Steve Sauer and Ken Lundemo, is where she has learned the most.

“It’s kind of hard to explain,” Funderburgh said, pausing at the question of what she’s learned from the old school Kitsap sculptors during time spent with Sauer’s shop in Port Orchard or around Lundemo’s wood fire kiln in Seabeck. “Really just how to be an artist … . Not to be afraid of making the same piece again, how to let a piece grow and how to let a theme grow.”

In school, she said she learned how to respond to assignments, how to digest and adhere to art theory while studying contemporary sculpture and organic chemistry. Now six months into her first go at being a full-time artist (grateful to incredible support from her husband, Ben) she’s learning how to let the art speak for itself.

“I make my sculptures to share what I cannot with words,” she writes in her artist statement online at evafunderburgh.com. She goes on to describe, “The resulting creature doesn’t care where it came from. It’s simply here to share its enjoyment of life.”

Funderburgh’s ceramic creatures really do seem like they have come to life in her first major gallery show, “Beasts of the Kiln” with Lundemo’s wildlife and Greg MacDonald’s daily drawings at The Island Gallery on Bainbridge. People have cooed at, petted and admired her whimsical creatures which have inhabited the deep, skinny showroom since the start of the month. They’ll remain through May 31.

“I really like how they get smiles from people,” she said, adding, “I can always tell it’s been a good day at the studio when the sculptures make me laugh out loud.”

While her sculptures definitely invoke a certain cuteness in composition and a playfulness in whimsy, they’re also incredibly fine-crafted pieces of art. The whole creature concept began as “three-dimensional” doodles from leftover clay in sculpture class, she said, therefore many of the pieces are miniature. But the detail, design and forethought of her work is magnanimous.

Smiling critters with tiny rows of bright white teeth made from special imported clay, a lumbering beast with a Jerusalem-esque city on its back and a moon beast with lunar-like spots on each side all help illustrate Funderburgh’s attention to detail while each also evokes an emotion of its own.

“It’s been really interesting actually figuring out where it all fits in the art world,” Funderburgh said of her work in the real world.

Her sculpture is unique in that it’s very whimsical in subject matter while it’s been created in the ancient and traditional art form of wood-fired ceramics. With that double-edged sword, Funderburgh said she’s found contemporary galleries which have balked at the ceramic aspect, and likewise traditional ceramics galleries that aren’t so crazy about all of her whimsy.

The Island Gallery, however — which has had the honor of hosting Funderburgh’s first ever full show — is crazy about both.

“She’s gonna go a long way if she keeps up with this,” gallery manager Susan Roth said.

Did I mention she’s only 25?

See just what Roth is talking about either at the Island Gallery this month or online at www.evafunderburgh.com. WU