Crafts Center events bring together the NC State community and public for fun, socializing and artistic enrichment. All events and exhibitions take place at the Crafts Center unless otherwise noted.
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Spring 2022
The Crafts Center presents…
Ceramics Monthly 2021 Emerging Artist of the Year:
Amanda Bury
Composite Construction: Baskets
Saturday, January 29th from 1:00 – 4:00 pm
LIVE through Zoom!!! [registration required**]
Amanda is a studio potter based in Advance, NC. Her utilitarian works pay homage to the origins of our food and the complex systems in place that move it from the ground to our tables. Often combining wheel throwing and handbuilding techniques, the soft geometry of her forms is complemented by her use of colored slips and dynamic overlaid imagery. Using slabs, slump molds and wheel-thrown parts she will demonstrate how she creates her basket forms with various shapes, sizes and purposes. After construction she will discuss her thoughts on layout/design of surface and show how she breaks up a form with color blocking then adds variety and individuality using custom stamps and drawn image transfers.
Artist Statement:
My drive to make functional pots comes from a deep reverence for food as the most intimate way humans relate to nature. My artistic practice quietly conveys my interest in the complex systems of culture, ethics, commerce, history, ritual, community and environment found within the realm of food production.
The formal language of my work is rooted in the growth patterns of nature. Geometric facets provide structure for color-blocked backdrops of abstracted crop field landscapes. Overlaying meandering parallel lines, intended as aerial viewed plow rows in soil, also serve as a visual language for the vast distances our often food travels. Stamped seed reliefs mark the origins of it all and are seen tallying up or across the form as a metaphor for crop yields of seasons past. Bold images inspired by personal experiences in nature, botanical/scientific illustrations, and vintage seed catalogs or packets occupy the foreground.
My image library includes pollinators, to whom we owe much of our food supply; tools/implements which reference the human hand in our agricultural system; and food/medicinal plants. Images are chosen for specific works based on associations to the form or function of the pot, and I do not dissect the part of the plant familiar to our kitchens from the natural whole. Through abstraction and quiet association my work brings a broad focus to the food on your plate. Serving as a reminder of the joy and wonders to be found in nature, our vital place within it, and our responsibility to care for it.
Visit Amanda Bury’s website to learn more about this artist and images of her work.
Event Registration Fee: $5.00 per person
** Register for your virtual front row seat to this event »