Current Work

Porcelain.

Work Available from:

16 Hands Studio Tour, May 4th and 5th, 10:00 to 5:00 Saturday, 12:00 to 5:00 Sunday. www.16Hands.com

Artist's Statement

Being a potter is the giving and receiving of thanks. My pottery is about food presentation. It is made to bring foods to light. While function is a primary consideration, mood is of greater importance. I try to create atmosphere with my tableware. Considerations about mood or atmosphere contribute to the overall look and feel of my pieces. Ideas come easily, but meaning seems to come in layers over decades of time. It is meaning that gives strength to good ideas. I hope that my ideas have grown with my skills.

I am concerned with ritual as well. Rituals uncover the basic values, aims and attitudes of a people. I am half Sicilian and half Cajun, whose cultures are wrought with superstitions. Throw in a Catholic upbringing and I have rituals dancing all about me. Cooking has given me an avenue to explore and create my personal rituals. I began to cook when I was a teenager, and it has been a strong, sustaining interest in my life.

Currently I am interested in the notions of hospitality. Hospitality, which means to give and to receive. I view pottery as a vehicle of hospitality, because a pot gives and receives simultaneously; it is both host and guest.

I think about things like:

Food- which foods are chosen from those available; how they are prepared; with whom, and when they are eaten; and how much time is allotted to cooking and eating. Food is one of the means by which society creates itself, and acts out its aims and functions.

How do I, as a maker of tableware, direct the theater of dining? This is where I believe I have some ability to give something to society. Here I become the host and the guest. By thinking about foods as identity, as our physical selves, as a way of thought, as sex, as power, as friendship, as a medium of magic and witchcraft, as our time controller, I see food as the root culture: that which gives meaning to our lives.

I hope my ideas about dining will shape and dramatize the rituals surrounding food. I want my tableware to embody the unspoken assumptions of my heritage and culture.

Background History

Education
1971 BFA, Kansas City Art Institute
1975 MFA, Montana State University

Professional Experience
1982-06 Studio Potter, Floyd, VA
1987-99 Adjunct Professor Instructor, Virginia Tech., Blacksburg, VA
1982-83 Instructor of Ceramics & Director of Ceramics Apprenticeship Program, Berea College, Berea, KY
1979-82 Resident Potter, Berea College, Berea, KY
1976-79 Studio Potter, Athens, GA
1975 Instructor of Ceramics, Extension Program, Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, IL
1975 Instructor of Ceramics, Extension Program, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL

Grants
1995 Virginia Museum Fellowship

Exhibitions History

2007 “The Cup Show”, Dow Studio, Deer Isle, ME
2007 “Table Tops”, Long Beach Foundation of the Arts and Sciences, Love Ladies, NJ
2007 “Plates and Platters: Salon Style”, Harrison Gallery, Philadelphia PA
2007 “Dinnerworks”, Louisville Visual Art Association, Louisville, KY
2007 “:Yunomis”, AKAR Design, Iowa City, IA
2006 “30x5”, AKAR Design, Iowa City, IA
2006 “Style and Function”, Blue Spiral, Asheville, NC
2006 “Craft: Tradition and Use”, SECCA, Winston-Salem, NC
2006 “Potluck”, Penland Design Gallery, Burnsville, NC
2007 “;St. Croix Valley Pottery Tour, St. Croix Valley, MN
2007 “La Mesa”, Santa Fe Clay, Louisville, KT
2007 “Cups Coming Together”, Clay Art Center, Port Chester, NY
2006 “Tea Pot Show”, Spruce Creek Gallery, Nellysford, VA
2007 “From the Earth”, University of Kentucky Museum of Art, Lexington, KY
2007 “Ladies in White”, NCECA Exhibition, Louisville, KY
2006 “Teapot”, University of Miami, Miami, FL
2006 “32nd Annual Potter Show and Sale, Demarest”, Demarest, NJ
2006 MudFire Clayworks Gallery, “Tea Pots A-Go-Go”, Atlanta GA
2006 “100 Tea Pots” , The Signature Shop & Gallery, Atlanta GA
2006 “Tea time: Art of the Tea Pot”, Kalamazoo Institute of Arts, Kalamazoo, MI
2006 Two person show with Ron Myers, Cedar Creek Gallery, Creedmore, NC
2006 Lill Street Gallery, Chicago, IL. "30/30"
2005 Watkins Gallery, Northampton, MA. "Soup to Nuts"
2005 John Michael Kohler Arts Center, Sheboygan WI. "Fill it to the Rim"
2005 Red Star Studios, Kansas City, MO. Potters of the Southern Mountains"
2005 Blue Spiral 1, Asheville, NC. "Hot/Ice"
2005 Santa Fe Clay, Santa De, NM. "The Box", "White", and "Cups, Cups, Cups"
2005 A Natural Touch, in conjunction with the NCECA Conference
2005 Mid-Atlantic Artists, Whitehall Gallery, Annapolis, MD (in conjunction w/ NCECA)
2005 Setting the Table, Lill Street Gallery, Chicago, IL
2004 Salt and Pepper Show, Odyssey, Asheville, NC
2004 Solo Show, Terra Incognito, Chicago, IL
2004 Butter Dish Show, Odyssey, Asheville, NC
2004 Preserve Penland Show, Hodges Taylor Gallery, Charlotte, NC
2004 Gas Fired/Wood Fired, East Tennessee State
2004 Tea for Two, Museum of Art and Design, Louisville, KY
2003 Two person Show, Cedar Creek Gallery, Creedmore, NC
2003 16 Hands at Squires Gallery, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA
2002 Old Church Cultural Center, Demerest, NJ
2002 Hot/Ice III: Teapots & Pitchers, Blue Spiral 1, Asheville, NC
2002 Beyond 2001: Current Artists of Archie Bray Fdn, Cube at Beco,Kansas City, MO
2002 Faculty Exhibit: Arrowmont School of Arts & Crafts, Gatlinburg, TN
2002 National Teapot Show IV, Cedar Creek Gallery, Creedmore, NC
2002 Resident Scholarship Fund Benefit Auction, Archie Bray, Helena, MT
2002 Regarding Clay: NCECA Benefit Auction, Belger Arts Center, Kansas City, MO
2001 American Pottery Festival, Northern Clay Cent
2001 Strictly Functional, Market House Craft Center, PA
2001 KCAI Auction: A Celebration of Artists, KCAI, MO
2000 Old Church Cultural Center, Demarest, NJ
2000 Couplets: Duality in Clay, The Clay Studio, Philadelphia, PA
2000 William King Regional Arts Center, "Community in Clay: Four Floyd County Potters."
2000 Instructors' Exhibition, Odyssey, Asheville, NC
2000 25th Anniversary Cup Show, Lill Street Gallery, Chicago, IL
2000 Instructors' Exhibition, Greenwich House Pottery, New York, .
1999 1999 Southeastern Clay International Blue Spiral I, Asheville, NC
1999 Silvie Granatelli & Mark Shapiro at W.D.O. Gallery, Charlotte, NC
1999 National Teapot Show IV, Cedar Creek Gallery, Creedmore, NC
1998 Cultural Art Center, Hollywood, FL
1997 Peninsula Fine Arts Center, Norfolk,VA
1997 Functional Ceramics Invitational, Alfred University, Alfred Newport News, VA

Workshops

2007 North Country Studio Workshop, Bennington College, Bennington VT
2007 Shakerag Workshop, Sewanee, TN
2007 Arrowmont School for Crafts, Gatlinburg TN
2007 La Meridiana, Certaldo Italy
2006 Jacksonville Center for the Arts, w/ Ellen Shankin, Floyd, VA
2006 MudFire Pottery Center, Atlanta GA
2006 Pocosin Arts, Columbia, NC
2006 "Pottery and the Foods of France", Cordes sur Ciel, France
2006 Mudfire Clayworks and Pottery Center, Decatur, GA
2005 Hambage Center, GA
2005 Julie Olson Workshop, Cary, NC
2005 Presenter at NCECA Conference, Baltimore, MD
2005 "The Italian Table" Workshop, La Meridiaba, Italy
2004 Lee Art Center, Arlington, VA
2004 Watershed Workshop, Conference on the Business of Crafts
2004 Old Church Cultural Center, Demerest, NJ
2004 Anderson Ranch, Snowmass, CO
2004 Carolina Clay Workshop, Greensboro, NC
2004 Terra Incognito Workshop, Chicago, IL
2003 Penland School for Crafts, Penland, NC
2003 Worcester Center for Crafts, Worcester, MA
2003 St Louis Community College, St Louis, MO
2002 University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE
2002 Archie Bray Foundation for the Ceramic Arts, Helena, MT
2002 Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts, Gatlinburg, TN
2001 Wichita State University, KS
2001 Sertoma Art Center, Raleigh92nd Street Y, New York, NY
1999 Cleveland Art Institute, Cleveland, OH, 2 Weeks
1999 Penland School for Crafts, Penland, NC, 2 Weeks
1998 Southwest Craft Center, San Antonio, TX
1998 Dan Finch Pottery, Bailey, NC
1998 Clay Art Center, Port Chester, NY, 1 Week
1998 Penland School for Crafts, Spring Concentration, Penland, NC
1998 Florida Craftsman Conference, Hollywood, FL
1997 Hinkley Pottery, Washington, DC.
1997 The Potter's Gathering, Cedar Lakes, WV
1997 Highwater Clays- Odyssey, Asheville, NC
1997 Southern Highlands Handicraft Guild, Asheville, NC, Lecture
1996 Sertoma Art Center, Raleigh, NC
1996 William and Mary College, Jamestown, VA
1996 Arrowmont School for Crafts, Gatlinburg, TN
1995 Penland School for Crafts, Spring Concentration, Penland, NC
1994 Henry Ford Community College, Dearborn, MI
1994 Alfred University, Alfred, NY
1994 Bluefield College, Bluefield, VA
1993 ACC Conference "As A Professional in Crafts" Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts
1992 North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC
1991 Penland School of Crafts, Penland, NC
1991 University of Georgia, Athens, GA
1991 Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA
1990 University of Tennessee, Clay Times, December, Excerpts from a workshop

Publications

2007 NCECA Demonstration Artist Series DVD
2007 Lark Books: Ceramic Surface Design, Maureen E. Mills.
2007 Lark Books: The Masters: Porcelain. Richard Burkett
2007 Lark Books: 500 Animals in Clay
2006 The Reach of 16 Hands”, March 2006 Ceramics Monthly
1990 University of Tennessee, Clay Times, December, Excerpts from a workshop

Collections

In the Collections of...
The Minneapolis Institute of Arts, MN
Mint Museum, Charlotte, NC
Museum of Ceramic Art, Alfred University, Alfred, NY
Art Museum of Western Virginia, Roanoke, VA