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.