2013 CERAMICS COMMENCEMENT EXHIBITION

All the best, Mat Z. Karas

“The place to improve the world is first in one’s own heart and head and hands, and then work outward from there.”

― Robert M. Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values

Ceramics holds a uniquely interlaced position in the arts, as a hub of

political, cultural, socioeconomic information. And because ceramics

(pottery, architectural ceramics, burial figurines, etcetera...) last so long

in the ground, ceramic objects have endured time and helped form a

foundation upon which our understanding of past civilizations is rooted.

Without ceramics, a substantial portion of our record of history would be

missing.

Even though we have been using ceramics for thousands of years, clay

continues to be a challenge to the novice user. It is a challenge of skill

in dexterity, engineering, chemistry, and tooling; and it still requires an

understanding of color, form, and composition. It even adds a few more

criteria; use, ergonomics and durability, to name only a few. Clearly,

ceramics is a challenging medium from which to study the visual arts,

and thus, I think it follows that it is also a very rewarding place from

which to study the visual arts, and the world around us.

Students at M.I.C.A. are constantly experimenting; the kilns are firing all

through the semester, and the studio is busy mixing, pressing, casting,

extruding, pinching, cutting, scraping and glazing. Students are trained

in ancient techniques, and cutting edge technologies, invariably making

a contribution to the field of ceramics. This catalog documents the

contributions made by 16 M.I.C.A. graduates working in clay. It has been

a privilege for me to exchange ideas with these fine young artists, and I

look forward to more work from them in the future.

It has been a pleasure,

David S. East

“The advice I like to give young artists, or really anybody who’ll listen to me, is not to wait around for inspiration. Inspiration is for amateurs; the rest of us just show up and get to work.”

― Chuck Close

Art is honestly a lot of labor (I prefer “labor” to “work” as its more

associated with “joy”), and ceramics in particular is more than most…

labor that is. To take on this challenge, the challenge of asking “What is

art now; what is ceramics now?” is the incredible task that young artists

set out for themselves. Clay is contradictory, complex and compelling;

clay is more things than it isn’t, and as a teacher and an artist this

makes my job more interesting than most. In all honesty, I learn more

from my students than they could learn from me. My only hope is that

I can facilitate a group to come together as a community dedicated to

the value of learning for learning’s sake, to asking what else can be, to

embracing failure and fear. My hope is that I can be a guide. The rest is

up to the students and these young artists have risen to this challenge

with conviction.

The art of the 20th century arguably could be said to be bookmarked

between two artists using ceramics, between Marcel Duchamp’s

“Fountain” and Ai Weiwei’s “Dropping the Urn”. The question then is, what

is ceramics in the 21st century? Surely it is these 16 young artists that

make up the class of 2013 that will be the ones to answer this question.

As a teacher (one who has been truly honored to work with all of these

young artists) I can’t help but give a bit more advice….

Make up your own rules, and of course,

Make Good Art.

Red DirtBy Margaret Boozer

I’m from Alabama. There’s red dirt everywhere down there. It didn’t

impress me too much when I lived there. Mostly, it was something I tried

not to track on my mom’s carpet. I went to graduate school in New York,

then moved to DC and set up my studio just over the line in Maryland.

When I went back for visits, the pervasive red glow of the Alabama

landscape started to take on some significance. It became special in its

remoteness and emblematic of home.

In the early days of my studio practice here, I had a lot of time to sit,

sketch and think about what to make. One crisp March day, looking

out the back door of my studio, I noticed the red bank leading up to

the railroad tracks. I had looked out that door for years, but suddenly

I realized that it must be clay. I grabbed my shovel and began chipping

away at the cold, hard surface. Deeper down, it was soft and moist. My

shovel began to stick. The consistency felt very tight and dense against

the blade. I broke off a chunk. It had an intense red color that stained my

hands. I tasted a little bit…a strong taste of iron, and a smooth texture

with no sand at all. I went back for buckets. I dug four or five buckets full

and lugged them back to the studio, where I just sat and admired my haul.

Free material, right out my back door… how awesome!

I’m more of a sculptor than a potter, but this beautiful clay made me drag

out my wheel. Throwing reveals the plastic qualities of clay like nothing

else. You can feel it reach the edge of its structural capacity, in real time,

right in your hands.

The walls of the bowl stretched and thinned easily with the pressure of

my fingertips. The occasional rock meant I couldn’t squeeze too tightly,

and I couldn’t spend too much time fussing over the form. This clay

demanded a light touch: get in and get out. The result was delicate, yet

casual and gestural. Pretty nice. I worked through the clay I had wedged

and made a lovely set of 8 bowls.

I still felt a restlessness to play with this material, to do something else. I

wanted it to reflect back to me something about that red expanse of bank,

something about digging, something about the ground. I got out the drill,

added some water, and mixed up a bucket of slip. I made a frame on the

floor and poured the slip into it, admiring the red puddle as it advanced

and covered the concrete. It made such a beautiful, pristine field that I

felt compelled to drop the bowls into it. What a satisfying splat!

Over the next few days, I watched the clay. The slip puddle in the frame

began to dry. The bowls began to break down and dissolve into the slip,

and the slip, shrinking beyond the tension of its taught surface, began to

crack into a pattern influenced by the bowls.

Edges curling, it was becoming a sort of clay painting, manifesting two

entirely different modes of clay work coming together in one piece. On

one end of the spectrum was the articulated pot—conceived, executed,

handled. On the other end was the untouched puddle of slip. And there

was the intersection.

Looking back, making this small piece set into motion some methods

of working that have become central to my studio practice. Instead of

choosing clay for its particular attributes, I began to work in reverse. I’d

find clay, then find out what it was good at, allowing the clay’s behavior

to suggest my approach in making the work. The experimenting became

essential to the process, and I began to think of my work as part art and

part science project.

And I began to claim this red clay as something that was mine. It’s about

where I came from, but it’s also about where I am. What’s in my own

backyard, what’s available, what’s under my feet that I might walk over

without noticing. Hamada said that if you find good clay, you should move

there. I didn’t know I was looking for it, but I’m glad I paid attention when

it found me.

ALI YOUNG

ANNA qUEEN

CAITLIN kENNEDY

CASSIS PITMAN

DEvYN bRIGGS

EDEN HOvENGA

EMILEE WOOTEN

GREG bROADWELL

MACkENzIE WENDLER

MOREL DOUCET

MORGAN bOLT

OLIvIA DIbENIGNO

SARAH OLMSTED

SHELSEA DODD

THERESA bORRUSSO

TOM DOYLE

FEATURED ARTISTS

#CULTURECeramics & Peruvian Walnut

2012 - 2013

AlI YoUng

I am interested in how different cultures have utilized majolica, a

low-fired ceramic glaze, to replicate high-fired Chinese porcelain.

In the attempt to replicate the Chinese aesthetic, each culture

developed their own unique ceramic tradition with a distinct variety

of surface ornamentation. My artwork is a direct response to the

rich history of diverse cultural traditions that form majolica’s past.

The variety of ornamental aesthetics informs how I employ narrative

imagery on ceramic objects as a vehicle for social satire. 

A System and its FunctionsSlipcast Porcelain, PlywoodDimensions varied2013

FoldSlipcast Porcelain, PlywoodDimensions varied2012

Roth/Co.Fluorescent Light, Paper, Frosted Duralar Extension Cord8’ x 4’ x 1’2013

AnnA QUEEn

When individual parts of a system of objects interact, new qualities

emerge that were not present before. These relationships create

a spatial model that is deliberately constructed. A situation is

constructed in which perception and awareness of one’s surroundings

is heightened. by having a constructed order and deliberate function,

each part of the system informs another. The reduction of form in

each object creates a highly considered space that references the

environment in which it exists, both physically and conceptually. This

temporary environment created from an arrangement of objects and

the space around them functions to leave the viewer with a new frame

of reference. The perceptual shift manifests itself in adjustments of

scale, proportion, light, line, and color. A varying focus is placed on

each of these aspects. Repetitions of form and line create a lineage

from one object to the next, thus reinforcing each form’s primary

conceptual function. Through this situation, a logical group of

references is created within each individual piece, each building on

another within the system.

CAITlIn KEnnEDY

On the precipice of adulthood, I’ve come to see the labor inherent

in a ceramic practice as a manifestation of budding self-sufficiency.

The skill necessary to throw a twenty pound bowl was not given to

me, but earned and honed through countless hours of hard work

and many failures. Still, there is something intensely satisfying

about making useful objects. It is a kind of exercise in potential: the

potential to edge a small part of myself into some small gap in the

life of a stranger, perhaps a gap of which they were not consciously

aware; the potential to make something that is perfectly suited to

a particular task; the potential to create something which will be

loved for the duration of its existence. I want to make objects that

can become fully enmeshed in the lives of others, as only utilitarian

objects can. In the way that, throughout my life, I cast layers of

significance onto my bedpost finials, I want objects that can act as

a sort of neutral ground for the personal narrative of their end user.

While it is possible to pin down and enclose meaning in very overt

texts applied to the surfaces of vessels, I am more interested in

supplying the blank page.

Craft was Created^6 Porcelain18” x 18” x 3”2013

Text About Adulthood^10 Porcelaineous Stoneware, vinylDimensions variable, 2013

CASSIS PITMAn

My heart breaks when I think about the children being sold for sex. I

am saddened when I hear about the horrors slaves face at the hands of

their oppressors. but more than just having those feelings I have a drive

to do something about it. There is corruption and evil in this world and I

want to do what I can to help its victims.. The boys in china being forced

to work in a brick factory, tending the kiln fires for almost twenty four

hours with no rest and the children in Uganda kidnapped, brainwashed,

forced to serve in a war they barely understand. I think about the girls

being forced to sell their bodies and I know that rescuing them will be

a big part of my life. I choose to stand with those who are enslaved and

call attention to their sufferings.

As David batstone of “NotForSale” once wrote

“No longer can we stand by as 30 million people are enslaved.

It is no longer enough to think about change.

It is no longer enough to talk about change.

It is time to shift gears — marrying movement with intelligent action

Our collective challenge is simple: Stand with those who are enslaved,

work together to free them, and empower them in their freedom to break

the cycle of vulnerability”

This is my calling and my life. As an abolitionist my activism

encompasses all forms of trafficking. but sex trafficking is where my

passion truly lies. In the future I would like to do some specific work with

those victims.

“You may choose to look the other way but you can never again say that

you did not know.”

-William Wilberforce

12 hours ( Detail )Mixed clay bodies

8’ x 16’ x 2” 2012 - 2013

Earthenware VesselsCeramic23” x 18” x 18”- 3” x 5” x 5”2013

ReverberationsAcrylic on canvas

6’ x 5’ 2013

DEVYn lEonoR BRIggS

The art I make is simply my means of reciprocating the joy and

beauty I am continually blessed to experience. It is birthed from

the desire to both show gratitude and share those things in my life

that fascinate me, amaze me, comfort me, and sustain me. It’s a

celebration of a faith, a heritage, a people, and a home from which I

have grown and continue to draw nourishment. Through the colors

of my culture, the textures of our homes, and the stories of my faith,

I create work with a personal vocabulary that describes my personal

experience. I work with both paint and clay, allowing the artistic

and material histories of Latin American and African cultures to

inspire the language with which I speak. My contemplations and

explorations remain the same whether I am working in paint or

ceramic. My strategies are consistent. I find those things in the world

that excite me and resonate in me and use that inspiration to create

beautiful objects with which I can give thanks and glory to God.

My paintings are often narrative or allegorical, reflecting on subjects

of faith, culture, community, and family. built up with layers of

acrylic paint, the pieces are vibrant in color and texture, yet they

maintain a sense of serenity with a hint of the sacred. Much like the

stained glass in a church, they invite contemplation and spiritual

reflection. The ceramic work is a fusion of traditional materials and

contemporary exploration. The vessels function in the same way the

figures do in the paintings. They are the metaphor for humanity, the

body and the spirit. Naked or adorned, broken or whole, empty or

full—these vessels explore humanity’s beauty and imperfection, its

fragility and strength, its humility and its pride. They reveal the will

and hand of the maker in the same way that creation reveals the will

and hand of the Creator.

Beaded VesselsCeramic, Wire, beads,8.5” x 8” x 8” & 9” x 14” x 14”2013

There Is a Storm In the Pit of My Stomach (Where Are the Elysian Fields) I & II (Detail)Driftwood, Porcelain, Mason stains, Rebar

3’ x 7’ x 6” & 4’ x 7’ x 8”2013

EDEn SIERRA HoVEngA

The maker in the studio with porcelain - rolling, coiling, pressing

in an attempt to create. The maker in the woods with a camera,

each photo a piece of a story, a piece of my perception. A vision

captured as quickly as a breath. Inhaled and then exhaled. The

maker whispering new stories, showing new ways. Manipulating

and mimicking the world - to capture, to record. Each knot and each

flower is its own, perpetually fading in and out of focus. How long

does it take for a flower to become?

How long does it take for a tree to fall?

How long does it take the maker to create her own world, to fell a

tree, to tell a story?

How sudden is the growth of a new world - a world of clay, of earth?

My world. My earth. My fingerprints pressed into each tile, each

photograph, each flower.

I make to dissolve the distance between the noumenal and the

phenomenal, to return to a naïve state of ebb and flow. Inside and

outside, real and imagined intermingle.

Each piece is a fervent pursuit to recover a moment that may no

longer exist.

If You Stand In Just the Right Place, You Can Hear the Water Humble the Earth. If You Stand Long Enough, You Can Feel the Mud Between Your Toes #2 & #20Porcelain, Enamel transfers, Lustre4” x 6” x 1” 2013

TwayStoneware, Acrylic paint, Wax

25” x 36” x 25”2013

SanjiStoneware, Acrylic paint

28” x 16.5” x 15.5”2012

EMIlEE WooTEn

I propose an investigation of corporeality in junction to selfhood. It is

worthwhile to investigate the different modes of identity, especially

the lives of anomalous people. To delve into the complexities of human

identity and its relationship to body image, one can begin to take a grasp

about the idea of bodily difference as an inherent part of our corporeal

and mental constitution. There is something to be said about provoking

consciousness of identity as well as restoring a sense of honor to the

representation of bodies of difference. Identity is fragile in nature; it

is neither given nor entitled. It is an entity that is built from the time of

birth to death. There is an emphasis placed on the separation between

our physicality and that of our self but we cannot exclude the flesh we

inhabit from the creation and sustainability of identity. The reason some

people feel unease at the sight of deformity is because the individual

does not know how to identify with the bodily image of an anomalous

person. With relative confidence one can say that “identity” is present in

the argument where the individual’s ideas of “normative self” are called

into question. . The ignorance exemplified in such terms is a failure to

investigate the modes of identity. People who live with extraordinary

corporeal realities are in their own eyes presumably ordinary. Rose

Marie Garland, author of Freakery, states that no one is a freak but

instead freak is a social construction. Freaks call into the question the

authenticity of one reality of bodily identity.

Janet, The Little ViciousStoneware, Acrylic paint

28” x 15.5” x 9.5”2012

Sculpture has a particularly gripping and effective way to invite

investigation of bodies of difference. Creating a life inside the flesh

and eyes of a sculpture has the ability to insight intimacy. The human

connection between what we see and how we relate to its formation

is striking. by discovering bodies of difference in an intimate and

immersive setting one is able to make an interpersonal connection

between the identity of the other and of ones self. I have built the

sculptures in a sincere devotion to the history, theory, and reality of

the corporeal nature of the extraordinary. They are modeled in an

honest fashion and have been done so in earnest. There should be

nothing to hide. Part of the problem of our struggle with identity and

corporeal reality is the notion of masking difference. There is a place

for the continuum of bodies and they should be investigated properly

and acknowledged for their form and their inherent possibility. To be

put simply, I have created theses people because I feel close to them

and because I admire not only their form but as well the questions

and discoveries that their bodies lend to the idea of identity and

humanness. For each person to experience anomalous individual

sculptures on an intimate and thoughtful level will provide the act of

seeing and realizing human form and its connection to the self.

Glock 7Cast Ceramics10” x 5” x 6”2013

Sans Rifle Walnut, Cherry

30” x 14” x 3”2013

gREg BRoADWEll

I like to think of myself as a practical person, and I have a reverence for things

that work. However, my artwork is comically impossible, outdated, the wrong

material, the wrong method and doesn’t do anything worth a damn. It was

simply created out of a fanciful and romantic infatuation for the formal object.

What is clearly a knife to most people, often a symbol of violence, is in reality

a piece of steel that has a specific geometry ideal for cutting. It is just an

object, made out of a material, with no will of its own but with a great deal of

symbolic significance. If I ever succeed in my artwork, I hope to nudge people

into stripping away the extra meaning, the baggage that has been given to

them and imbued onto these objects, and simply observing them for what they

are. My work is anti-provocative in a way that is difficult to understand for

some people. I want the things I re create, namely weapons, to be understood

in a way that only a maker can see them, as an object of beauty and joy.

Clay is known to be an excellent recording device. The things I make or

emulate often have an intended purpose of destruction. Some may say I am

destroying the clay, but in fact I am simply altering it, letting the tool do the

making through my hand. I feel as though methods of destruction and violence

are overlooked, simply not thought of in this way, but in fact the process of

making is filled with these destructive acts, intended for creation. Energy

cannot be created or destroyed, only channeled.

Series of Shot Clay Bodies ( Detail )36” x 44” x 7”

2012-13

MACKEnZIE WEnDlER

I use the force of my body to create individual, sculptural parts. Each object is

a piece of the palate. Each piece a mark I get to use to paint onto the world.

Families build.

Landscapes form.

Messages pass.

I am currently fabricating the marks through porcelain and steel. I am drawn

to porcelain because it has a very persnickety memory. It cracks along places

where thick clay meets thin, an evil smile. Porcelain slips, slides, tares,

slumps, and wobbles tenderly.

My current love affair.

bright white, almost green when wet. It carries a fragile resistance. Fired

in a high fire reduction firing, the glazes pop, bubble, transform, and

brighten, often reminding me of when desert meets water, or the twisting of a

cottonwood.

Making. An instant joy.

When I use metal, I gravitate toward found, and discarded pieces. Red and

green rust flakes like skin under a microscope. I take them into the shop, and

use all the strength in me to warp them. Our strengths are tested against one

another.

Some days, my body exerts more precision and control over the clay or metal

palate, while other days they want to

rip me apart.

Jack kerouac Wrote

“It’s only through form that we can realize emptiness.”

I let the presence of my hand remain within the form, giving shape to

the space within and around the artwork: recording little moments in

time that will outlive my physical body.

As I work in relation to the fluid materials, their elasticity records

more than my fingerprint. The material records a state of being.

Through the physical cues I can see times of strain, inspiration,

confidence, love, intuition and even times in pain.

All happy struggles.

Like an aspen grove, it takes many individuals to create the beauty of

a whole. This is my approach when it comes to the making of my art:

a way to engage the self in an external dialogue, a balance of body,

space, force, and consciousness to create physical poetry.

Earth Metal and SelfMetal, Clay, and Mackenzie10’ x 5’ x 5’2013

Imprints 1-93Earth and body

Dimensions variable 2013

MoREl DoUCET

Through our dreams, we make contact with a vast,

yet elusive side of ourselves. My work utilizes

and reflects converging objects found in nature,

such as accumulation of flora and fauna. Drawing

inspiration from nature’s paradoxical beauty, I

aim to create work that not only stands out for

its regal impact but also for its sensitivity. My

inspiration comes from an ongoing interest and

profound respect for indigenous tribal cultures of

the Amazon, Aboriginal natives of Australia and

the Yoruba tribe of West Africa. I am fascinated

with garments and textiles of Native Americans

and Afro-futurism. With this vocabulary of

indigenous art, along with my personal dreams, I

make whimsical forms resulting in a diary of my

personal mythology.

My work spans the exquisite spectrum of clean

and simple, to the grotesque accumulative

take-over of the body. Through writing, drawing

and sculpting, I seek to create a dialogue with

the natural world while exploring elements of

my cultural identity. Examining different exotic

cultures of the world has enabled me to connect

the dreaming experience as a universal theater

of fantasy, nightmare, desire and prophecy. Each

work of art is the result of my personal interaction

with my dreaming experience. I explore different

themes of ambiguity as a means of subverting

the borders between my subconscious and the

mundane restrictions of society. I work with

fragmented narratives and their morphologies to

merge them in order to reflect the holistic nature

of life.

Flored EchidnaTile 6 Clay, Oil Paint

22” x 16” x 20”2013

Leshy and the TravelerTile 6 Clay, Oil Paint

12” x 8” x 10”2013

Untitled ( Tree Spirit )Tile 6 Clay, Under Glaze, Watercolor29” x 27” x 25”2012

MoRgAn BolT

My work plays with the use of pattern by transforming iron objects

into light and fragile porcelain while simultaneously transforming

the industrial into the handmade. Industrially made objects serve as

inspiration- in particular manhole lids, grates around trees and water

drains. These are sites that often get overlooked, but specific people

spent time adding unnecessary embellishments to these objects that

perform such a simple functional task.

My process begins with the patterns that I find in urban and industrial

spaces. I make the choice to alter them by using clay as a medium to

introduce these patterns into our homes in a more familiar way, with

ceramic tiles or functional dinnerware. My goal is to create a space in

someone’s home where they are confronted with these patterns on a

daily basis. As they step out into the world they will start to pick up on

these sometimes ignored objects. Geometric pattern is simplified then

reconstructed to mimic these objects again as a whole. Though these

patterns are very simplistic they act as a personal map, pinpointing

exactly where I have been, observed, and what I would like for others to

notice out in the world.

UntitledCone 6 Porcelain, black Slip, Clear Glaze

11” x 5” x 1”2013

Tree GrateCommercial Ceramic Tiles, Acid Etching Cream

72” x 36” 2013

DrainsCommercial Ceramic Tiles, Sandblasted,

41” x 11”2013

Manhole Cover Dinnerware (Baltimore III)Cone 10 b-Mix, Gold Shino Glaze, Wood Fired

9.5” x 9.5” x 3”2013

olIVIA DIBEnIgno

I create art that represents my personal history – aspects of

buildings that have stayed ingrained in my memory. I am inspired by

architecture, these moments in space that, much like my drawings

and ceramics, are frozen in time; memories that reevaluate what is

reality. Through my use of found family photography, I intend to not

only recreate reality, but also redefine it. I suggest the desire for

home, whether that is a building or a symbol, as architecture is often

equated with memory and nostalgia.

being conflicted by paradoxical themes, I am in a constant

state of being pushed and pulled – between Italy and America,

drawing and clay. This tension informs and ties my work together.

This combination of drawing and clay acts as a metaphor for

how nostalgia and memory influence the work I create. These

compositions are meant to illustrate a space occupied yet incredibly

isolated. My infatuation with isolated buildings emphasizes the

simultaneous idea of being alone and being a part of something.

This isolation fuels my work, as I am drawn to images that suggest

longing for the past.

Shutter/OtturatoreRed Earthenware26” x 48” x 2”2013

Memory/Memoria (1977)Porcelain6” x 3.5” x 0.25”2013

Roof/TettoWhite Earthenware, Wood, Paint

42” x 55” x 24”2013

SARAH olMSTED

I am interested in connections and relationships between humans, and how

those relationships are reflected in the architecture and utilitarian inventions

from the Neolithic age through the present. In general humans have always

built off of the ideas that came before them. As a result, every mundane object

we use today possesses a long and extraordinary history. I am interested in

exposing this history of the human thought process through my work. Clay,

one of the first building materials ever used represents a foundation or origin

of an idea. by applying this ancient material to modern structural designs, I

am displacing the function of the object and re-assessing the strength of the

material.

I am investigating the simple shapes and fundamental building blocks that

make invention, engineering, and construction possible specifically—the

wheel and axle, inclined plane, pulley, wedge, lever, and screw. These six

simple machines act as the common thread through every era of history. I am

curious about how we build, what materials we use and where the value of

aesthetics and engineering meet. by altering mundane objects from functional

to metaphorical, from industrial to hand-made, I invite the viewer to look at

how our familiar constructed environments can be re-understood.

Inclined PlanePorcelain19” x 10” x 11”2013

LeverLocally found Clay

34” x 5” x 12”2013

RakeLocally found Clay 7” x 9” x 8 1/2”2012

SHElSEA DoDD

Most artists create their own beauty. I try to harness the beauty

that already exists so abundantly in the world. I am inspired by

a degree of awe that fills me when witnessing life. My personal

philosophies combine the wonder and poetry of the natural world

with the power of science and psychology. because of this, I often

play with the line between science and art in my work.

These biological and metaphysical meditations lead me to ultimately

consider the body: the manifestation of life and nature’s opus. The

human body, in its capacity for cognitive thought, separates us from

all else, yet, in it’s raw biology, binds us to all else as well. The iron

that colors our earthenware is the same iron that colors our blood.

Our blood, like our bodies, runs so much like the blood, and the

bodies, of the animals. Throughout history we have coexisted

and interacted with the animals in every way imaginable; we have

arguably sprung from the animal ourselves. This is what makes

our myriad connections so delicate and poignant. Along with

our dominion, we have inherited a great and grave responsibility,

usually left unexamined. My work investigates the relationships

between humans and animals on a biological, philosophical, and

psychological level.

Faithful to this triptych of ideals, my work is made using specific

materials, both natural and manmade, romantic and logical. These

materials create simple imagery that shelters layers of concept.

With regard to Plato, I strive to capture beauty and Truth through

material, anatomy, and simple existence.

Suckle (Milk Pillars)8 gallons of milk, glass

6” x 18” x 38”2013

Through a Glass, Darkly (detail)Porcelain, Mice fired to various temperatures, Wood, Plexiglass6” x 6” x 36”2012

OdalisqueStoneware, Paint, Glass taxidermy eye36” x 40” x 16”2013

Through a Glass, Darkly (detail)Porcelain, Mice fired to various temperatures, Wood, Plexiglass6” x 6” x 36”2012

Bulbous (detail)Earthenware, Low Fire Glaze, Underglaze13” x 8” x 8”2012

THERESA BoRRUSSo

Through the use of clay I mimic the actual mineral formations

that exist in nature on a smaller scale. My work deals with the

illustration of environmental succession- the replacement of the

controlling community by another that is more fit; in this case,

involving the breakdown and growth that occurs in a location,

specifically by having structures or earth growing in places they

shouldn’t be, through whatever means necessary. The avoidance of

organic material in my work has to do with my wish to avoid a direct

relationship to any specific locations. Instead of creating a model

of a particular site, I’m interested in the idea behind the landscape.

by creating sculpture that is lacking components that people would

generally recognize as belonging to a location: plants or animals,

it brings the focus of my work away from being about a location or

about the memories of a location, and instead brings it back to being

about the actual growth of the environment.

DescentEarthenware, Underglaze

12” x 5” x 12”2013

Shard (detail)Earthenware, Underglaze48” x 15” x 5”2013

ToM DoYlE

There is meaning in the everyday materials of our world, from the cheap flooring in the

bathroom downstairs, to the guest room’s decorative molding. There is a reason why we

construct the way that we do. I am interested in taking raw elements from our everyday

architecture and arranging them in such a way that is honest, appreciative, and even reverent

to the object’s ever-changing social and structural value.

The materials that we build with have always intertwined both structural support as well

as image, but today we build cheaply and fastidiously, covering a new craftsmanship with

applied facades. New building materials though allow us to reflect on older ones and to see

the moments when the image of structure meets its physicality. I hope to take the language

and lessons of our contemporary building blocks and apply them honestly to traditional

means of construction, always looking for what the object really does, its total meaning.

Front: Job DoneTerracotta, Linoleum, Plywood, Wax3’ x 1’ x 1.5’2013

HangGlazed terracotta, Nylon mesh, Oak3.5’ x 1.5’ x 6’ 2013

Overview of Exhibition2013

For more information on featured artists and programs of study please visit the Ceramics home page at:http://www.mica.edu/ceramics

Founded in 1826, Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) is the oldest continuously degree-

granting college of art and design in the nation. The College enrolls more than 2,000

undergraduate, graduate, and continuing studies students from 46 states and 53 countries

in fine arts, design, electronic media, art education, liberal arts and professional studies

degree and non-credit programs. Redefining art and design education, MICA is pioneering

interdisciplinary approaches to innovation, research, and community and social engagement.

Alumni and programming reach around the globe, even as MICA remains a cultural cornerstone

in the baltimore/Washington region, hosting hundreds of exhibitions and events annually by

students, faculty, and other established artists.

This publication was made possible by the MICA Alumni Association, the Office of Academic Affairs and the Friends of Ceramics

CERAMICS DEPARTMEnTMaryland Institute College of Art

1300 Mount Royal Ave.baltimore, MD 21217Office: 410-225-2251

DESIGN RYANWOLPER.COM