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December Issue 2007
North Carolina Pottery Center in Seagrove, NC, Offers New Exhibitions
The North Carolina Pottery Center in Seagrove, NC, is presenting several exhibitions including: An Independent Spirit: The Potters of Seagrove Today, on view in Galleries I & II through Mar. 29, 2008 and Wood-fired Elegance: The Work of Donna Craven, on view in Gallery III through Mar. 29, 2008.
An Independent Spirit: The Potters of Seagrove Today features the work of seventy potters working today in Seagrove. With a two-hundred year history as a pottery-making community, Seagrove today reflects the diversity of the potter and clay artist community in contemporary society. The range of personal expression is vast and includes not only form, but the scale of work, kiln technologies, the glaze surface, and traditional and international cultural influences. For the visitor, Seagrove is a democratic and eclectic adventure with few filters to separate the potter from their audience. This exhibit reflects that remarkable diversity.
The exhibition Wood-fired Elegance: The Work of Donna Craven features large richly ash-glazed vessel forms balanced by beautifully restrained incised and faceted surfaces. Craven says she is "challenged by each piece to create a continuity between the thrown form and the surface. Working on the wheel completely engages me. Then creating those optical accents on the piece, while labor intensive and time consuming, absorbs me and makes the form come to life." The work is created by wheel, coil, and paddle using a one inch extruded coil of commercial stoneware clay. After surface alterations, flashing slips, crackle slips, and glass runs are used in combinations often with a sprayed ash celadon glaze.
Craven became a Seagrove journeyman in 1996 working at Humble Mill and Turn and Burn Potteries. She held the first opening of her groundhog kiln in 2001. In 2004, her work was seen in Ceramics Monthly's Upfront section. The Raleigh, NC, News and Observer Living In Style magazine did a feature article in Sept. 2007 on Craven, fellow Seagrove potter Daniel Johnston, and sCatawba Valley potter Matt Jones. 2007 exhibitions include the Wayne County Arts Council, the Moring Arts Center, Asheboro, and the Cabarrus Arts Council. Her work is represented in the Mint Museums, Charlotte, NC.
Exhibitions are made possible through the generosity of our membership, the Randolph County Board of Commissioners, the North Carolina Arts Council, the National Endowment for the Arts Institute of Museum and Library Services, the Covington Foundation, and the Cooke Foundation.
The mission of the North Carolina Pottery Center is to promote public awareness of and appreciation for the history, heritage, and ongoing tradition of pottery making in North Carolina.
For further information check our NC Institutional
Gallery listings, call the Center at 336/873-8430 or visit (www.ncpotterycenter.com).
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