meet the cloud 9
Katie Stone
Organizer, Artist
​Biography
My sculptures exist as storytelling devices, recounting the feeling of coming of age during Y2K amongst contemporary structures. Through the lens of a nonbinary individual, these works address how gender is harnessed. Our economy, and the hierarchies that proceed it, thrive on inherently weaponizing the vulnerability of femininity. My personal proximity to animal husbandry has shown that they can exist as metaphors to people in conversations about profit and power in society. The animals in this work thus become inherent empathy driven devices. Using the vehicle and leverage of “cuteness,” these sculptures dress the concerns of equity and equality with an intentional feminine politeness. With our current world climate, I believe it's time to address “cute’s” subversive nuance in challenging past and present systems.
Statement
Katie Stone grew up in a rural farming region of Connecticut. They spent their childhood either sneaking through barbed wire fences to pet dairy cows. Following their childhood, Katie traveled across the United States and Canada in pursuit of their art career. They presently live in Syracuse, New York as a first year MFA candidate at Syracuse University. As a Regina Brown Fellow through NCECA, Katie practiced as a Resident Artist at Medalta Potteries in Alberta, Canada. Katie’s work has been exhibited in national and international exhibitions including Aqua Art Miami and the Archie Bray. Katie has been featured as an Emerging Artist on Musing About Mud as well as one of the “20 Best Sculptors to Follow” by Art is My Career.
J. Casey Doyle
Artist
Biography
J. Casey Doyle is an Associate Professor of Art and Design at the University of Idaho. He received his MFA with an emphasis in Sculpture from The Ohio State University in 2007 where he was a University Fellow. He holds a BFA with emphases in Sculpture and Metals & Jewelry and a BA with emphasis in Spanish from New Mexico State University. He is the recipient of two Idaho Commission on the Arts Fellowships. He exhibits his work both nationally and internationally. His art combines interests in ceramics, sculpture, metals & jewelry, video, gender and the concept of play.
Statement
Utilizing sculptural strategies, a strong dedication to craft and work ethic, humor, and popular culture, I maintain a hybrid practice that explores sculpture, ceramics, and moving image. As an advocate for gay rights, equality, and myself, I create sociopolitical works that question our relationship to gender roles/stereotypes, sexuality, and the built environment. Each of these works begins with a question to society and myself. I create works that explore the ambiguity of materials, scale, and color, and employ repetition as a form of meditation. I am interested in material limitations, the gendering of materials and processes, and the debunking of craft vs. fine art. I use video as a method of recording intimate performance, my process as a maker of objects, and objects in motion.
Taylor Whyte
Artist
Biography
Taylor Whyte was born in Upstate New York where she completed a a year-long residency at the Saratoga Clay Arts Center in Saratoga Springs, NY after completing her undergraduate degrees in Fine Arts and Psychology. She then relocated to the Midwest for graduate school earning her MFA in Ceramics in the Spring of 2021 from Ball State University. Taylor is currently a resident artist at the Lillstreet Art Center in Chicago, Illinois.
Statement
We are often told that “less is more”, and to “leave something to be desired”. Ideas like these are applied to a variety of things in life, but they also extend to how we express ourselves and our emotions, and therefore extend to how we are supposed to engage with the people around us. We are often told to smile, to not show our anger, and to only cry in private. We are conditioned to think that those of us who are emotional are somehow less than; the label only comes with negative connotations and is often applied to women. I believe people should be allowed to express their emotions without fear of rejection or being seen as a pariah. These amplified emotional responses often are deemed undesirable and make others uncomfortable.
When people are faced with an emotional individual they often attempt to offer up small gestures of comfort, such as a tissue, or an apology for what they are going through. However, those gestures are conditioned responses and intended to dig as deep as a “how are you?” in casual conversation. What happens when we really get to the root of someone’s sadness and attempt to supply comfort? What happens when we allow others to exist that way without the expectation of them keeping it bottled up inside or immediately acting better?
Being an emotionally-driven person who suffers from anxiety as well as attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder, I deal with emotional dysregulation, meaning I often have heightened emotional responses to things that a neurotypical person would not. On occasion, it seems as though my emotional state is as fickle as the weather. As such, being neurodivergent in a world that values the ability to “act normal” brings its own set of challenges. Humor and masking my true feelings are the ways in which I attempt to conform to societal expectations.
The ceramic works contain my empathy and seek to comfort others in the ways I know how beyond words. Each piece possesses the ability to hold tangible comforts, the tissue box cover for tissues, the basket for blankets and pillows, and the jar for baked goods. The work references what I reach for in order to cheer myself up and the items I extend to those I care about when they are sad. Through the use of weather- based imagery, I am able to get my point further across; the accessibility extends it out to everyone. The stormy surfaces hint to something more somber with the hopes of lessening your burden or the opportunity to simply sit with your feelings in solace. This work simultaneously comforts myself through the act of making and, for others, it exists to extend comfort even without my physical presence. With this work I am putting my emotional state at the forefront and confronting you with it or inviting you to sit in on it with me.
Tyler Quintin
Artist
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Biography
Tyler Quintin is currently a long-term artist in residence at the Morean Center for Clay in St. Petersburg, FL and was recently a resident artist at the Haystack Mountain School of Craft in Deer Isle, MN. Prior to this, he completed work-study, internship, and assistantship positions with various artists and craft schools across the country. Tyler received a BFA from Washburn University iN 2016 on a full tuition merit scholarship. This opportunity afforded him the facilities to explore work across a variety of mediums, which eventually led to a transition from drawing to ceramics. Tyler’s work has been exhibited in numerous national and international exhibitions, including venues such as the Archie Bray Foundation for the Ceramic Arts (Helena, MT), the San Angelo Museum of Art (San Angelo, TX), and the Lancaster Museum of Art (Lancaster, PA).
Statement
My work focuses on my experience navigating life as a Korean-American,
as well as the formulation of my identity through Internet culture. Taking inspiration from wire frame models in 3D software, I recreate traditional Korean ceramic forms through intricate clay structures. The vessels, which are traditional in form but lack the surface area on which to apply traditional decoration, become a metaphor for the contrast between my physical appearance and my lack of a Korean cultural upbringing. Additionally, I am interested in the formulation of identity through the guise of online avatars. My sculptures utilize animal characters to act as my own avatars to tell personal narratives. Parts of these animals are deconstructed into wire frames to communicate the idea of a rendered, artificial moment. In contrast, I want the emotions of the avatars involved to communicate the authenticity of the experience.
Vanessa M. Norris
Artist
Biography
Vanessa Norris grew up in Maine and spent much of her time doodling and crafting as a youngster. Craving to get out of her comfort zone, she enrolled at MassArt to pursue a life of working with her hands. It was there she discovered her love for clay and since graduating has moved across the country several times to work for different ceramic artists, including Deb Schwartzkopf. She currently resides in Boston where she set up a private studio (Dirty E Studios) with her husband and fellow MassArt alum, Gustavo Barceloni. She is currently a full-time potter.
Statement
I’m a lover of words and how we piece them together, much like clay, to create meaning. My work refers specifically to weather and cloud related idioms (every cloud has a silver lining, head in the clouds, etc). I make whimsical, voluminous forms that reflect the playful nature of those idioms. The recognizable iconography of the cloud provides an access point to enter the language of my work, allowing space to reflect on the role these phrases play in our lives. My goal is to spark joy in routine--to infuse whimsy in the act of slicing butter or sipping coffee.
J. R. Shea
Artist
Biography
John graduated with a BFA from the School for American Crafts at RIT in Rochester, NY in 2011. From there he traveled to Montevallo, AL to be a resident artist at the University of Montevallo. Afterward he moved to Portland, OR working for Bullseye Glass and Mudshark Studios. He moved to Madison, WI to attend graduate school at the University of Wisconsin - Madison and recently graduated with an MFA. He currently teaches and is a Resident Artist at the University of Little Rock and lives in Little Rock, AR.
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Statement
I make within a framework built on an understanding of Object Oriented Ontology that seeks to create a way of viewing objects in part and whole that gets to the heart of a person's relationship to the inanimate matter that surrounds them. The pieces are a reflection of my own personal interest in the way that abstraction acts as both an indicator of an individual as well as a kind of collective meaning that coalesces around random matter; the way it both is and isn’t something recognizable at the same time.
Joe Page
Artist
Biography
Born and raised in Northbrook, IL, Joe received his MFA from the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University and his BA from Knox College. A childhood spent immersed in Legos and video games left him incurably obsessed with building and making things.
After teaching at Whitman College in Walla Walla, WA for five years, he began as Assistant Professor and Area Head of Ceramics at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville in 2014. His "Flow Chart" series of installations have been featured at various galleries, universities and art centers throughout the United States and abroad.
Statement
The escapist allure of immersive environments drives my work, orienting the viewer in a place of comfort and curiosity. The vibrant colors, reductive imagery, and illustrated movements within the “Flow Chart” series of installations are deceptively simple, derivative of early video games, pinball machines, mass transit maps, and schematic diagrams. Within this framework, one soon begins to uncover the world's underpinnings: a rules-based system of sculptural parameters, compositional logic, and spatial relationships. Flow Chart: Cloud Vessels are a series of high-fire porcelain drinking cups and an outgrowth of my
“Flow Chart” installation-based work. These slipcast tableware echo the repeated cloud and bubble-like shapes of those “Flow Chart” installations. They present a redefinition of a handle, more akin to a haptic sculpture that fits the hand in myriad ways. A variety of colored glazes and slips evoke the brightly colored, saccharine palette of the“Flow Chart” installations.
Austin Coudriet
Artist
Biography
Austin Coudriet was born and raised in Lincoln, Nebraska. In 2019 he earned his BFA with a dual emphasis in sculpture and ceramics from the University of Nebraska- Lincoln. There he focused on fabricating large ceramic sculptures and expanding his skills in the wood shop.
Austin is currently an artist in resident at the Clay Studio of Missoula located in Missoula, Montana Here he is able to pursue his passions of teaching, and working as a studio artist. He divides his studio practice between creating large scale sculptures intended for public art installations, and graphic pinch pots.
Statement
My work is an ongoing tactile conversation between soft amorphous forms and rigid linear components. The medium of clay offers me elasticity and mutability, capturing my touch like a photograph. When refined clay evokes crispness and rigidity, yielding physical and formal structure. Clay captivates me as it undergoes transformations. Its versatility in form and potential provides me with units upon which I can build and construct.
My creative process is a catalyst that helps me outwardly process my internal emotions. Through the use of tension, color and negative space I abstractly depict pivotal and ephemeral moments in my life. My work is displayed in temporary compositions that adapt to the emotions being processed. The use of bright colors and playful arrangements is often a facade masking the complex deconstruction of my internal state of being.
I collect inspiration from modernist architecture, mid century modern furniture, scaffolding and clouds. This imagery is recorded in a collection of sketch books, which I later reference when establishing new forms. As a child I would draw with my father, an architect, I was fascinated by the way he built with lines, they exceeded their boundaries yet they were contained by the image they formed, loose but intentional. As I transform my sketches into three dimensional space I retain this quality of freedom found within structure.
Chelsey Albert
Artist
Biography
Chelsey Albert grew up in Pennsylvania in a very large mixed ethnic Arab and Nordic household being one of the eldest of five children. She spent her childhood within the museums, libraries and played behind the scenes writing and drawing stories from the artwork found in collection storage at the Carnegie Museum of Art and sought solace in the lore and myth of world histories and the culturally diverse experiences that surrounded her. Chelsey has traveled across the United States, Brazil, Europe, and Canada in pursuit of her art career. She obtained her BFA in Art Education with an emphasis on Ceramics from Carlow University and obtained her MFA in Ceramics at Syracuse University. Chelsey taught in Higher Education at Syracuse University and Wells College for four years and presently is an Art Educator teaching K-12 art at Montour School District in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Chelsey’s work has been exhibited both nationally and internationally including at NCECA 2021 Cincinnati at Northern Kentucky University, Aqua Art Miami, Tolne, Nordjylland in Denmark, and The American Museum of Ceramic Art and is in private and public collection across the country.
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Statement
An encapsulated memory within an object whether large are small connects us all. As every human being has their own collection of objects that sums up their life filled with experiences and memories that we are drawn to. These objects that might appear mundane but are often considered sacred to us in our attempts to hold on to the intangible lenses of memory and time. If you were to assemble each object of your most important milestones what would a year in your life look like? What do we define as our most precious treasured moments and memories?