CASSIE BUTCHER

Emerging artist Cassie Butcher found her voice early. Butcher received a degree from Berea College in psychology and ceramics. Upon graduating she attended Penland School of Craft in North Carolina and then received a two-year residence at Odyssey Center for Ceramic Arts. She attended the University of Florida for post-baccalaureate studies in Ceramics.

Fueled by her interest in human relationships that stemmed from her degree in psychology, Butcher began making figurative work. Her work did not follow the traditional accurate anatomical depiction, however; it took a more psychological bent.

Butcher's ceramic figurative sculptures, called Souls, are stripped of all the exterior human trappings and traces. What is left is a simple form. “I wanted to represent people without bias – no rich/poor, fat/skinny, beautiful/ugly, smart or not," says Butcher. "What is left is the soul – our authentic self.”

Butcher keeps the form so simple that she creates her own world – a quiet realm of souls. By changing color, patterns and textures, she creates individual souls and a different reality. If we go into this reality, we can find souls that we know or wish we knew; we can connect.

“I use the word ‘souls’ to describe the figures that I make because I feel it touches on the essence of who everyone is. It does not indicate who we are on our physical surface or who we are in our circumstances, but who we really are. Sculpting in this style connects people on the deepest aspects of life. I want my work to have a therapeutic and relatable feel to it that draws the viewer in to empathize with it.”

SHEENA CAMERON

In 1981 Sheena Cameron moved to Dixon, New Mexico, half-way between Taos and Santa Fe, from her native Boston. Cameron had received a BFA in ceramic sculpture from Massachusetts College of Art in 1969 then spent the next 30 years making art jewelry. Finally, in 2003 she got back to her first love, working with clay, and started experimenting with making horses. “They seemed to take on a life of their own,” Cameron says.

Sturdy creatures that stand on masonry nails Cameron's "Messenger Horses" are stoneware, Raku, and some fired in a Japanese style wood-burning kiln. Within the ceramic bodies Cameron creates a compartment that hold secret treasures - fossils, crystals, gemstones or hand-made jewelry. The names of the horses and what she writes about the symbolism of the materials she uses, comes to her as she works on each piece and is recorded in each horse’s little book. Cameron’s horses are both contemporary and mythic.

PAUL CHALEFF

Paul Chaleff is known for colossal scale in ceramic sculpture and vessels. As one of the pioneers of the resurgence of wood firing in America, his wood fired work can be found in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Renwick Gallery at the Museum of American Art and as well as numerous other museum collections across the United States. Paul maintains his studio in Ancram, New York and is exhibited widely throughout the United States and abroad.

LUCY DIERKS

Lucy Dierks has the following Chinese Proverb as part of her Artist Statement: “A bird does not sing because it has an answer; it sings because it has a song.”

Dierks’ perches a little bird on each of her porcelain pieces not just for decoration, but “to encourage contemplation and conversation,” as she explains. Dierks’ signature style of ceramic artistry features unique surfaces, exquisitely detailed little birds and beautiful glazes. But Dierks’ birds are “not sweet,” as she insists; “They are wise and watchful.”

Dierks says of her work, “My pieces express my delight with nature and like nature, I want them to reflect a harmony of form, surface, and purpose. I strive to make small intimate pieces whose design and texture invite you to hold them.”

Dierks started working in clay in 1997 followed by a concentration course in ceramics at Penland School of Crafts in North Carolina in 2003. Since than her work has been featured in several galleries including Blue Spiral in Asheville. She is an annual exhibitor at the Philadelphia Museum of Art Craft Show and this year was invited into the Smithsonian Museum Craft Show. Dierks lives and works in Norfolk, Virginia.

JOHN GECI

John Geci, of Penland N.C., blows glass into beautiful shapes. He combines Caning, an old Venetian technique, with beautifully clear vibrant colors to create his contemporary pieces.

VICKI GRANT

Vicki Grant has been a practicing architect since graduating from the School of Architecture at the University of Maryland in 1977. For the past eight years she has been working with porcelain and natural objects to create very original and intriguing sculptures. 

Grant calls her larger sculptures on slate "Windows to the Earth," which pays homage to mother nature. 

"I find my inspiration for each piece from found objects which have come from our earth," says Grant of this series. "Driftwood, stones, shells and pods are each pieces of art themselves, which I carefully place and organize within a portal or window. The outer framework is designed to reflect the movement, color and textures of the found objects," she concludes. 

In Grants new work called Spirit Sticks she applies her mesmerizing patterns and filigree to tubular forms. Once again honoring the nature that inspires her. Grant lives and works in Littleton, N.C. and Scottsdale, Ariz.

SANG ROBERSON

Sang Roberson grew up on a lake in the Mississippi Delta surrounded by nature. "My pots are reflections of those quiet childhood summers past - soft, calm, and filled with promise," she says. "Though relics, those moments continue to give me serenity and fulfillment in the midst of chaos."

The refined forms of the hand-built boxes and vessels by Roberson have an Asian sensibility. They are earthy, yet refined and impeccably crafted. They are modest and self-contained. This simplicity belies a labor-intensive process. Roberson creates her boxes from slabs of clay and formed in molds which she designs and builds. The subtle shapes and surfaces are burnished with a fine clay slip and fired three times; the last being pit-fired outside in hay, sawdust, bamboo and other plants in order to imprint the surfaces with natural textures. Her ceramics are often decorated with gold or silver leaf and adorned with bits of rock, beads or mother of pearl. Roberson acknowledges an early debt to Pueblo Indian pots, especially the burnished blackware of Maria Martinez.

Roberson received her BA degree from the University of Mississippi and studied at Sophie Newcomb College (Tulane University). Roberson has taught at the prestigious craft schools of Arrowmount in Gatlinburg, Tenn., and Penland School, Penland, N.C.

Roberson's work has been exhibited at the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Tampa Museum of Art, the Fine Arts Museum of the South, Alabama and the Mississippi Museum of Art. Her ceramics are in the collections of the Ormond Memorial Art Museum, Florida, the Daytona Museum of Arts and Sciences, Florida and the Columbus Museum of Art, Georgia. Roberson currently works from her studio in Ormond Beach, Fla., and Taos, N.M.

MARLENE ROSE

Marlene Rose is a nationally known glass artist whose work can be seen in several museums and fine glass galleries around the country. While Rose’s process of glass making is old, as are the images she depicts, her work is very contemporary. 

Rose chooses images that are strong and simple often from ancient cultures in Africa, China and Tibet. Her Buddhas created by the Sandcast Glass method are set on or surrounded by welded steel giving them a modern interpretation. As you look closely, bits of sand adhere to the surface, as if the piece had just emerged from an archeological dig. This interesting combination of contemporary and old - materials, images and processes is part of what makes Rose’s work so compelling. But her work goes beyond the tangible. “I try to put everything of my spirituality into the work,” she states. “My goal is to create life in whatever I make. In the ordinary, I see the extraordinary. The glass is a glimpse of something beyond the moment, a vision frozen forever.” Rose gives us art that is beautiful, quiet yet powerful and contemplative.

Rose received her undergraduate degree in sculpture/glass from Tulane University in New Orleans and her MFA from CCAC in Oakland, California. She has also studied at Pilchuck Glass School in Seattle. Rose has had 15 solo exhibitions and is in the permanent collection of several museums. Originally from New York, Rose lives and works in Clearwater, Florida with her husband and two children.