september 13 - october 19

SEPTEMBER 13 - OCTOBER 19
Contents
Valerie Banes Hancock
Bradley Blair
Barbara Broadwell
Jamie Brogdon
Anastasia Gabriel
Kim Louise Glidden
Dan Harris
Lucien Koonce
Christopher Leonard
Matthew Mitros
Nathan Nixdorf
Mike Rand
Gayle Signer-Farber
Arthur Towata
Punch Bowl Set, 2012
VALERIE BANES HANCOCK
Born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Valerie received her BFA from the University of Oklahoma with an emphasis
in Ceramics and Photography (2009), and her MFA in Ceramics from the University of North Texas
(2012). Her thrown and altered functional work has been exhibited across the US, including the 2012
NCECA National Student Juried Exhibition in Seattle, WA. Alongside studio work, teaching has been
an important part of her career. She has taught at Mountain View College, Tarrant County Community
Sugar and Creamer, 2012
Honorable Mention
College, was a Teaching Fellow in Ceramics during graduate school, and a Teaching Assistant for
children’s art camps at the Philbrook Museum of Art in Tulsa, OK during her undergraduate degree.
Valerie is currently the Ceramics Lab Technician and an Adjunct Professor at the University of North
Texas, where she runs the ceramics facility and maintains a studio. To see more of her work, please visit
her website www.valeriebanes.com
BRAD BLAIR
Brad Blair is originally from northern Maryland and received his BS in Fine Arts focusing in Ceramics from
Towson University, located just outside of Baltimore, MD. Currently, he is completing his MFA program at
Florida State University in Tallahassee where he is also teaching ceramics classes. Future plans include
teaching at the college level, while continuing to create personal artwork.
His inspirations include Earth’s oddities and monstrosities, from the micro to the macro, dinosaurs,
cryptozoology, other artists, and life experiences. Brad says he uses these inspirations, paired with
ideas of cultural issues, to create his unique works from clay and other materials. See more at: www.
BradBlairCeramics.com
Aqua Hopper, 2011
Honorable Mention
BARBARA BROADWELL
Barbara Broadwell was born and raised in Great Falls, Montana. She went to Rocky Mountain College
in Billings, Montana majoring in Art, but her college education was cut short when she enlisted in the
U.S. Army during the Vietnam Conflict. She received her BFA in Sculpture from Sonoma State University
in 1998 and an MFA in Ceramics from San Diego State University in 2002. She maintains a studio in
which she continues to make artwork in drawings, printmaking, ceramics and sculpture. She maintains
an active exhibition record and has been a recipient of numerous awards.
Barbara is Associate Professor of Art at University of Central Oklahoma, Edmond, OK. Her work
has been recognized with a 3rd Place Award at the IEA encaustiCon International Juried Exhibition,
Gallery Nord, San Antonio, TX and a Juror’s Award at the Materials Hard & Soft, 25 Annual National
Contemporary Craft Competition and Exhibition, The Meadows Gallery, The Center for the Visual Arts,
Denton, TX. Her website is barbarabroadwell.com
Abbadon, 2011
Second Place
Ludere, 2011
JAMIE BROGDON
Born in Fort Worth, Texas, Jamie currently lives in Watauga, Texas where she is attending Tarrant
County College. She says, “Once I started working in porcelain, I knew I would never look back. There’s
something about the smoothness and flexibility of it that is rather seductive and alluring. My work is filled
with textures and shows repetition.
I choose to leave my work unglazed on the outside to really show the beauty of the clay, while the inside
is a mix of bold colors. I like the message of it all, how you may think something is one thing, but when
you get up close and personal it’s another. You may think the white porcelain is delicate and feminine,
but on the inside its fire red and burning with passion. Nothing is what it seems in life, and we should
avoid judging a book by its cover.”
Pretty in White Ruffle Vase, 2013
ANASTASIA GABRIEL
Anastasia Gabriel is a native of Fort Worth, Texas. Her porcelain clay process-based installations explore
memory from an individual and collective standpoint through use of multiple objects and printmaking
techniques. She had her first solo show this summer at The Fort Worth Community Art Center, Fort
Worth Texas. In addition, Anastasia collaborated with another artist creating a time-based, interactive
artwork during NCECA’s (National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts) Project Space, held in
Houston Texas this past spring. She also received the Paper-Clay award for work entered in the 2013
NCECA National Student Juried Exhibition, Graduate division.
Anastasia is currently working on her Master of Fine Arts at Texas Woman’s University, Denton Texas.
She is teacher of record for Ceramic Throwing, summer/fall term, and earning academic scholarships as
well as awards related to her studies. Visit her website at anastasiagabriel.com
The Journey Home, 2012
KIM LOUISE GLIDDEN
Kim Louise Glidden was born in Wichita, Kansas, and currently lives in Littleton, Colorado. She is
basically self-taught, followed by three years apprenticeship with American and New Zealand potters.
For the past eight years, she has owned The Pottery Studio Gallery representing over 50 artists, and has
taught clay arts.
In 2012, Kim received the Director’s Choice Award at Pottery Northwest’s “Un-Wedged” show in Seattle,
Washington, and, in 2013, received the Purchase and Outdoor Second Place Awards at Spanish Peaks
Arts Council’s “Straight Up!” show in La Veta, Colorado. See kimlouiseglidden.com for more information.
Bison Vertebrae, 2013
Squeezable Crack Pot, 2013
DANIEL HARRIS
Born in Port Jervis, NY, Dan resides in Norman, Oklahoma where he earned his MFA in Ceramics at the
University of Oklahoma and works from his home studio. He is an art educator in the Norman Public
School system at Irving Middle School and teaches ceramics at the Firehouse Art Center.
Dan has exhibited throughout the US and has been invited to include his work in the Pottery Shows,
curated annually by Karen Karnes, at The Art School at Old Church. Dan’s work can be seen on his
website at dtharrispottery.com
Tri-Wheeling, Spout Dripping One-Shot Teapot, 2013
LUCIEN M. KOONCE
Lucien Koonce was born in Greenville, North Carolina. He received his BFA in Ceramics at East Carolina
University, Greenville, and his MA and MFA in Ceramics at the University of Iowa, Iowa City.
Lucien lived in Robbins, NC from 1986 to 2002. This eastern Piedmont region of North Carolina has
had a heritage of pottery making since the mid-1800s and it was there that he established Horsepen
Kiln Studio. Lucien relocated to Charlotte, NC where he was an adjunct lecturer with UNC-Charlotte,
teaching Ceramics Handbuilding and Three-dimensional Design and re-established Horsepen Kiln Studio
in the Asheville, NC area, another major pottery center since the mid-1800s.
In 2008, Lucien left North Carolina to reside in the western Massachusetts village of Haydenville, where
he maintains Horsepen Kiln Studio. His ceramic work consists of handbuilt functional and sculptural
forms, which are wood fired, and exhibits nationally and internationally. Visit his website, lucienkoonce.
com, for more information.
Guinomi with Bidoro, 2011
CHRIS LEONARD
Chris Leonard, born in Des Moines, Iowa, currently lives and works in McAllen, Texas where he is a
ceramics instructor at South Texas College. Leonard earned a BFA in Painting /Art Education from the
University of Northern Iowa. After fourteen years of teaching, he returned to school full-time to complete
his MFA at the University of Texas Pan American.
In 2011, Leonard received an Honorable Mention for “Wink” during the Magic Dirt Exhibition at Old
Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia and Third Place for “OPP/Pink and Yellow Anxious Fellows” in the
Las Cruces Museum of Art’s From the Ground Up XXV. Leonard was selected for Bradley University’s
Central Time Ceramics Biennial in 2011 and included in the University of Tulsa’s Red Heat during 2012.
He was invited to participate in The Texas Clay Art Association’s Attachments 15, a concurrent exhibition
during the NCECA Annual Conference in Houston in 2013, and “Six Katz” was juried into Visions in Clay
2013 at San Joaquin Delta College. Visit his website at www.leonardski.com
Six Katz/Sunny Yellow Mellow Fellows, 2013
Honorable Mention
MATT MITROS
Born in Philadelphia, PA, Matt completed his BFA in Ceramics at Penn State University, completed
a post-baccalaureate from the University of Illinois and holds an MFA from the University of
Washington. He was an Artist-In-Residence at Arrowmont School of Arts & Crafts as well as the
Archie Bray Foundation and has exhibited work throughout North America and Europe.
Matt is currently a Assistant Professor at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa. In 2008, he was
an Artist Trust GAP (Grant for Artist Projects) recipient funded by the City of Seattle. His work has
been featured in Art in America, Art LTD, Clay Times, Ceramics Monthly, and City Arts Magazine,
as well as the book 500 Figures in Clay and various newspapers. For more information, visit his
website at mattmitros.com
Satellite Spud, 2013
Trees and Lines, 2013
Perched Potato, 2013
Honorable Mention
Pair of Canisters, 2013
NATE NIXDORF
Nate Nixdorf is an artist and teacher from Lititz, Pennsylvania. Teaching high school ceramics at Warwick
High, Nate works with about 100 students each day in clay, and creates his own work at his homestudio in Cornwall, PA.
Nate graduated from James Madison University in Virginia with a degree in Ceramics, and has taken
graduate coursework in ceramics at various schools including Alfred University, Virginia Commonwealth
University, University of Florida, and the University of the Arts in Philadelphia. The work he creates is
made primarily on the pottery wheel, and is intended to stimulate the sense of touch, enhancing the
users interaction with the object.
Nate has exhibited in various juried shows across the United States, as well as South Korea. His work
Wood-fired Vase, 2013
can be found at galleries and shops in central Pennsylvania, as well as online at www.nixdorfpottery.com
MIKE RAND
Mike Rand began exhibiting his ceramic artwork while still in public school. By 1996, his work was
exhibited on the national stage. After receiving his Master of Arts degree at Southern Cross University in
Lismore, NSW, Australia he began to exhibit internationally.
In 2002, Rand returned to the United States where he continued exhibiting in group and solo exhibitions.
His artwork is part of the permanent collections of the Cincinnati Art Museum and the Dayton Art
Institute. His studio and wood-kiln are in the mountains of Colorado. Visit his website at studiorand.com
or on Facebook at Studio Rand.
Missed Thought Connections, 2013
Twisted Thoughts Escaping, 2013
First Place
GAYLE SINGER
Gayle Singer, Professor of Art (Ceramics) at the University of Central Oklahoma for eighteen years,
earned her Masters in Education from Southwestern Oklahoma State University, a BFA from the Kansas
City Art Institute, and MFA from New York State College of Ceramics. For twenty years she has taught
and maintained a private studio out of her home.
Her work has been widely exhibited throughout the US. A bowl was accepted into the National Juried
Bowl Show “The Battle of the Bowls” to open in Lynchburg, Virginia in October 2013. A teapot was
accepted in the recently published Lark Books, 2nd edition, of “500 Teapots.” In January 2012, she was
featured in Ceramics Monthly “Ceramic Dance: The Works of Gayle Singer” by Tony Merino. Her work is
in permanent collections such as the Spencer Museum of Art, the University of Kansas in Lawrence and
The Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, Johnson County Community College, Kansas.
Untitled Pitcher, 2011
ARTHUR TOWATA
Arthur Towata, painter and master potter is a Japanese-American who was born in Los Angeles,
yet ended up incarcerated at Manzanar War Relocation Center in eastern California, shortly after
the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. Towata, then age 8, spent the next three and a half years in
confinement with his mother and younger brother. His father, Itsuji, was detained separately and lost his
life there. The 73-year-old Alton, Illinois resident, ironically, never perceived its hold upon the evolution of
his lifelong work. Had he not returned to Manzanar in 2006, he said, “I would have missed the obvious.”
Towata has received the “Most Distinguished Alumni Award from the University of Southern Illinois where
he received his MA and MFA degrees. Both his ceramics and paintings were featured in a one-man
show, “Echoes from Manzanar: If Walls Could Talk,” at the Jacoby Arts Center of the Madison County
Arts Council. The Towata Gallery is located in Alton, Illinois.
Ram Effigy Urn, 2012
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