Oy Clay!!! Pottery - ARTIST STATEMENT/RESUME

ARTIST STATEMENT/RESUME

I have been an actor and singer/songwriter of conte mporary Jewish music for many years, while supporting my family as a claims negotiator. After moving to Asheville, North Carolina, I was introduced to clay and the potter's wheel and knew this was my next journey.

My pottery started out as an attempt to redirect my creative energy. I had been increasingly unable to express myself as a singer/songwriter, and thought the tactile work with the clay would break my writer’s block.

Instead, working with clay became a new way to express myself. As a lyricist or poet one creates the metaphor. But the act of forming the clay and firing the clay is the metaphor. Adamah, Hebrew for “earth”, Eish, “fire”. For me, the creation of each piece is an act of reclamation. I feel the clay, the earth, the adamah and it pulses with the soul of the Jewish people. I imagine reclaiming that adamah, forming it into something beautiful and useful and sending it back through the fire, not to destroy it, but to strengthen it. My work is functional and/or ceremonial, and designed for a Jewish home or synagogue.

RESUME

CERAMICS EDUCATION

Beginning Wheel - Lori Theriault - Odyssey Center for
the Ceramic Arts (OCCA) Summer/2008

Beginning Wheel - Emily Reason - OCCA, Fall/08

Beginning Wheel - Gabe Kline - OCCA, Winter/08-09

Masters of the Mountain - Multiple - OCCA,

Spring/09

John Britt, Suzy Lindsey, Kent McLaughlin, Terry Gess,

Karen Newguard, Lindsay Rodgers, Leah Leitson

Surface Decoration - Terry Gess -OCCA Spring/09

High Fire Glaze: Celedon, Shinos & Red Iron Oxides-
John A. Britt - John Britt Pottery Spring/09

Serving Pieces, Intermediate Wheel - Becca Floyd -
OCCA Summer/09

Basic Ceramic Raw Materials and Glaze Chemistry -
John A. Britt - John Britt Pottery Fall/09

Cylinders - Becca Floyd – OCCA Fall & Winter/09

Making Faces - Alex Irvine – OCCA Winter/09-2010

Making Better Work - Cynthia Bringle - OCCA, Spring/2010

Glazing Techniques – John Britt, John Britt Pottery

Late Summer 2010

Exploring Forms for Soda Firing

– Linda McFarling -

OCCA

Late Winter & Spring 2011

PUBLICATIONS

500 Judaica - Lark Books publication - 2010

That Moment

Nelle Pingree -

CD Producer – Paqmania Productions – 2006

EXHIBITIONS

The American Guild of Judaic Art
Southern States Membership Exhibition

The Rosenzwieg Museum, Durham, NC - September 2 – November 30, 2011

Objects of Virtue -

Bedford Gallery - December 1, 2009 - January 31, 2010 – Walnut Creek, CA

Blessings & Innovations -

Dennis & Helene Dennis Museum, Toronto,

Canada

M5P

September 18, 2009 - December 31, 2009