Visiting Artist Series

Jenny Reed is an interdisciplinary artist and educator who specializes in ceramics. She creates craft based assemblage sculptures that depict abstracted, whimsical representations of domestic objects and spaces. Jenny received her BFA from Northern Kentucky University and MFA from Indiana University Bloomington. Her work has been featured in numerous exhibitions throughout the US, including The Lormina Salter Fellow Solo Show at Baltimore Clayworks and Spring / Break Art Show in NYC.  She is currently making art and teaching in Baltimore, MD. 

IG: @jreed_creates 
 www.JennyReedArt.com

Trying Hard to be Soft 
Ceramic, fiber 
56" x 18" x 18" 
2022 

Bri Murphy is an interdisciplinary artist, who combines digital technologies such as 3D printing with more traditional materials, influenced by their background in ceramics. Their work explores notions of American identity through the deconstruction of its mythologies – from busts of the Founding Fathers to treasured prose such as the Declaration of Independence. Bri holds an MFA in Ceramics from Ohio University as well as Bachelor’s degrees in Ceramics and Art Education from SUNY New Paltz. Currently, Bri is the Sculpture and Digitial Fabrication Faculty for the University of Northern Colorado. 

IG: @brisketmurphy
www.brimurphy.com 

Unfounded: Washington 
3D printed ceramic, underglaze 
2020 

My work addresses design elements from 18th and 19th century European and American slipcast ware. Although much of the work I am inspired by involves the use of commercial production techniques, my pieces are created with the immediacy and individuality attributed to hand processes. The historical work that inspires me presents a conception of beauty and labor that often seems empty in regard to contemporary considerations regarding the human condition.  

Stumbras was born in Chicago, Illinois. He studied at St. Olaf College, where he received a BFA in studio art and a BS in biology in 2007 and an MFA in Ceramics from Louisiana State University in 2017. Stumbras has exhibited work nationally and internationally. He is currently an Assistant Professor at Southern Illinois University in Edwardsville, Illinois.  

IG: @mikestumbras 
mike-stumbras.com 

Ceremonial Ewer
15” x 6.5” x 6”
2022

Cone 11, reduction soda fired porcelain, multiple layered glazes, wheel thrown and hand built with slip trailing, water etching, and gold luster. Soda-fired stoneware base.

Zach Sierke - ceramist, educator, and wild clay expert will share the story of Mobile Bay’s ceramic history. Zach has deep roots in the bay’s ceramic history through his family’s lineage, and he continues to develop the legacy and story of place with his teaching practice and commitment to wood-fired stoneware in his large anagama kiln.

IG: @zachsierkepottery 

Anagama fired wolf stoneware, cone 9, reduction-cooled

Catherine White weaves together throwing and handbuilding techniques. Objects are made with markings and irregularities that intentionally reveal the touch of the hand. White collects and poetically uses diverse raw materials in her anagama and gas-fired kilns. Clay work is intertwined with extensive drawing, painting and collaging. White has an MFA in ceramics, studied painting in Aix-en-Provence, France and taught ceramics for many years at the Corcoran College of Art + Design in Washington, DC. and Hood College. She has written for “The Studio Potter” and “The Log Book” examining failure, drawing, materials and choice. 
 

IG: @artistpotter
www.catherinewhite.com 
 

Lindsay Oesterritter is currently a full-time studio potter in Manassas, Virginia. She is a co-president of the Studio Potter Board and co-organizer of Southern Crossing Pottery Festival held in her hometown of Louisville KY. She works with clay in an intentionally straightforward manner, choosing the clay and combination of processes for the marks that will be left behind.  The processes of making are recorded on the surface of the object and begin to reveal the qualities of the material and tell a visual story. She utilizes the wood firing process and reduction cool techniques to continue to highlight form and surface variations, and reference the slow and continuous passage of time. 

IG: @alindsayo 
LOceramics.com       

Emily Baker is an Assistant Professor of Sculpture at Georgia State University and is based in Atlanta. Her work studies manufacturing industries and honors our industrial past while re-envisioning its future. She investigates the worker’s role in relation to automation, technology, and trade. She aims to bridge gaps between materials, industries, and our bodies, bringing us closer to the products we use and the journeys they have taken. Her work focuses heavily on the idea of identity and repair, and considers the fragility of industry along with the economic and seismic shifts that will define the future of work. 

IG @emilyallisbaker 
http://www.emilyabaker.com/ 

Liquid Alloys
chiffon on steel
2019 

Joseph Delphia graduated from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio where he studied art education, ceramics, and sculpture. After receiving his BFA and BS in 2007 he moved to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania where he began teaching for various organizations including the Carnegie Museum of Art, the Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild, the Union Project, and the Community College of Allegheny County. In 2017 Joseph earned his MFA in Ceramic Art from Hood College in Frederick, Maryland and now lives with his family on their small farm in Archbold, Ohio where he continues to teach and produce functional wood fired pottery. 

The wood kiln is my primary tool but it is through stacking and carefully placing my work that I can begin to predict and control the fire. I create channels, compressing and directing flame through and around the work forming rich deposits of ash, dynamic flashing patterns, and vivid color. Through this process I am recording a narrative on the surface of every piece; each is unique but linked to all the others. My work provides a tactile experience and it is through this multi-sensory approach and the function of my work that the narrative can be understood. 

IG:@josephdelphiaceramics
https://josephdelphia.com/

Hand Plate #1
Woodfired Stoneware
2021
7x7.5x2.5 in.

Jenna Gianni is a part-time ceramic artist and part-time instructor from Frederick, MD. Drawn to natural objects that tell a story of time and processes of growth, her collection of found natural objects like sea pods and shells, coral fragments and rock specimens serve as catalysts for form, texture, pattern, and color in both sculptural and functional works in clay. Gianni has an MFA in ceramics from Hood College where she currently teaches as an adjunct instructor. In addition to her work at Hood, she is a part-owner of Washington Street Studios in Harpers Ferry, WV, working as Education Director and Instructor. 

IG: @jennagianni
jennalynnstudios.com

Nest
Soda fired porcelain 

The Meadows Pottery is located on a 315-acre family farm.  The land was purchased in 1864 by the artist’s stepfather’s great-great grandfather.  Moving from a sub-division onto this farm at the age of twelve had a profound impact on the potter’s young life.  Early days were spent sitting under the old oak on the hill in a sense of wonder.  Thoughts travelled to yester years while pondering the tales the old tree retained in its branches.  How would it describe the horse drawn carriages that passed by on their way to Bardstown so faithfully following what was then the Wilderness Trail?  The young potter would also contemplate what could only be described as the spiritual way in which his stepfather was a faithful steward of the land.  The aspiring artist took note of how intimate his stepfather’s relationship was with the land.  Current work is an attempt to reflect the ebb and flow of the simple life the artist grew to admire as a child.  The work is primarily wood fired functional pottery, straight-forward in form and intent.  Inside the frame and philosophy of practicality is the struggle to communicate the underlying connection he sees between the rural, hard-working days of his youth and the life he wants to live as a potter.  The cyclical pattern of throwing, trimming, glazing, and firing are comfortable for him.  He is a farm-raised laborer who has wonderful memories of planting, weeding, and harvesting.  In the age of quick marts, high speed connections, fast food, one-stop shopping, daily efforts are to live life slowly and with purpose.  In a time of mass produced uniformity, his routine is to create works that are unique, the final wood fired process magnifies that each piece has recorded its own tale of creation, a human tale of struggles, of successes, of failures, of imperfections and of hopes.  It is that familiar story that clay can so honestly record.  Combined with the silent language between maker and user, pots can carve out their unique paths of connectivity.  Hope centers on the idea that the quality of the work is subtle and simple and takes time to appreciate.  Maybe the first cup of coffee in a handmade mug reminds people, in the hustle of their everyday grind, that things of real value take time.  To view these objects is to slow down for just a moment to talk, to catch a glimpse of dark soils, to view large open skies, and to connect. 

IG:@gaddiematthew

Biography
Meaghan Gates grew up in Northern California and she received her BFA from California State University, Chico. She earned her MFA at the University of Massachusetts,Dartmouth as a Distinguished Art Fellow in the field of ceramics.Throughout her artistic journey,she has worked in many different studio settings and has shown her ceramic forms across the United States and internationally. Along with her artistic practice,she currently is an Assistant Professor in Ceramics at Utah Tech University in St. George, Utah.

Artist Statement
Drawing inspiration from the natural world, my work captures moments of both beauty and the grotesque through precarious moments of flux. Each piece is created using wheel-throwing and coil-building techniques to produce many smaller assembled elements within a form. This mode of building references my interest in the repetition,and variation, found in the growth patternsof biological organisms. Each piece is intended to stimulate empathy to their captured moment in time and where their action may lead.

IG: @meaghanmgates 
http://www.meaghangates.com

Ripple
Ceramics and glaze
25.5" x 16" x 10"
2021

My practice is influenced by music and ecology, using a sculptural lens to find connections between the dance club and natural ecosystems. Our current anthropocene era underscores our human-measured version of resources, timelines, and labor and the detrimental impacts of human-focused thinking. My practice reconsiders the human and animal body in a variety of ecosystems through painting, sound, sculpture, and installation. Often the dance club becomes a framework to step out of the algorithm, to re-engage with the tactile world, and to address questions of queerness, “invasive species,” eros, and intimacy.  Most importantly, the dance floor and dance music allow for shared embodied experience, and flamboyant aesthetic displays akin to those seen in the natural world. 

IG: @spalding.wav 
http://www.confounder.net/ 

Deep Stretch
Nails, mesh, steel, bungee cord, athletic mat, plaster, resin, sporting balls.
4' x 6' x 6'
2019 

Artist Statement:

The pots I make are rooted in my investigation of historical objects, architecture, function, and sculpture. It is important that each piece is approachable and functional to encourage use and closer examination. As a student of History, I’m drawn to forms that have endured through time. Creating a new form provides me the opportunity to explore these interests through the subtleties of detail, volume, and geometry. 

Each piece is made either on the wheel and then altered, pressed into a mold, or slip cast. These making techniques allow the creation of sleek, paired-down forms that are a result of my investigation of mid-twentieth century Scandinavian forms as well as contemporary architecture and design found around the world.  

My background in the study of History provides me with insight about my own work in reference to a larger historical context. I find it deeply satisfying to create soda fired objects that can be used and enjoyed and it is my hope that the user discovers subtleties of form and the depth of the surface through use and time. The ideas of continuity and progress throughout history fascinate me and inspire my evolving aesthetic. 

The pots I make are rooted in my investigation of historical objects, architecture, function, form and fire. Particular attention is given to clean and uninterrupted lines and shapes that contribute to a vessel that may have a quiet yet strong presence when standing alone and also accentuate food or flowers when in use. A pairing of locally dug clays and soda firing techniques creates dark, dry, crater-like surfaces full of depth and subtlety which encourage further examination. Barriers are used within the kiln to shield areas of the surface where a bright pop of color is desired.  

As a student of History, I’m drawn to forms that have endured through time. Creating a new form provides an opportunity to explore these interests through the subtleties of detail, volume, silhouette and geometry that ultimately gives insight into a larger historical context. A current examination of early Native American culture has brought a focus to my work where form closely follows function and adornment is stripped away and paired down to the true essence of the objects purpose. 

BIO:

Stuart Gair received a history degree from Ohio University and completed an MFA from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Gair has spent time making work and teaching at the Archie Bray Foundation (Helena, MT), Harvard University (Cambridge, MA) as well as Colorado Mountain College (Aspen, CO). Currently, Stuart lives and works as a full time studio artist in Athens, OH, an area rich in clay and ceramic history, where he is exploring alternative ways of firing the soda kiln. The geometric forms he creates are driven by form, function, utility, subtlety, and discovery. Gair hopes that each piece is used and enjoyed whether displayed on a table or in the hands of the user. 

IG: @stuartgair
stuartgair.com

Dylan Beck is an artist and educator living in Portland, OR where he works from his home studio making sculpture and utilitarian pottery. His sculpture explores landscape and the built environment. Beck’s work vacillates between veneration and admonishment as he invites his viewers to consider human’s role within the ecosystem and our relationship to natural resources. 
 
IG: @dylanjbeck 
https://www.dylanjbeck.com/ 

HUBBERT PEAK 
Ceramic, underglaze, glaze 
h 12" x w 13" x d 5" 
2021