Baltimore Clayworks–Take a Class

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RONNI ARONIN is a founding member of Baltimore Clayworks and current resident artist and has been creating production porcelain since completing graduate level courses at Towson University in 1980. Her utilitarian porcelain work is adorned by vigorous and brightly colored brushwork. Over a career spanning nearly 3 decades Ronni has made her living selling her work nationally through a variety of competitive wholesale and retail craft fairs.

ALLYSON BANK is an art teacher in the Anne Arundel School system, she has been teaching for four years at Piney Orchard Elementary. As an artist Allyson works in numerous mediums, she has started her adventures with clay taking by classes at Towson University. During her time off as a full-time teacher, she teaches at The Painting Workshop for ages 6-15.

DEBORAH BEDWELL is executive director at Baltimore Clayworks and one of its founding artists. She has received much acclaim for her success in creating Clayworks’ community arts programs, which for more than 16 years have made the arts accessible to underserved individuals throughout Baltimore and the region. Her extensive knowledge of contemporary ceramics has taken her throughout the US and abroad where she has served as a panelist, curator, lecturer and workshop presenter. In addition she is an accomplished potter who continues to exhibit her clay work both locally and nationally.

MICHELLE BROOKS graduated in 1998 with her B.S. Horticulture from NC State. She began working with clay in 1996 in NC and in 1999 she began teaching as a basic wheel instructor at Pullen Arts Center and Jordan Hall. Since moving to MD in 2001 she has been an instructor at Clayworks, the Frederick Pottery School and at the Art league School in Alexandria where she has been teaching basic wheel, intermediate wheel, teen wheel, children's clay camps and Raku & Saggar firings.

ELIZABETH BURGER holds a BA from Alverno College in Milwaukee, WI and an MFA in ceramics from the University of Cincinnati, OH. Elizabeth has been a ceramics instructor at Howard Community College since 1995, the Columbia Art Center and Essex Community College. In addition she has completed numerous artist-residencies and workshops, most recently at the Southwest School for the Arts in San Antonio and at the Santa Fe Art Institute.

MARY CLOONAN is a Clayworks resident artist and sculptor. She holds her MFA from Syracuse University and her BS Fine Arts from Nazareth College. She is the ceramics professor at American University in Washington, DC and teaches after school programming at Park School, Brooklandville, MD. Mary has recently completed an artist-in-residence program at Tainan National University for the Arts in Tainan, Taiwan ROC.

JIM DUGAN is a resident artist of Baltimore Clayworks where he also manages all resident artists in addition to working as the wood kiln manager since the summer of 2005. He has been working with clay since 1995 where he attended California University of PA. Since that time he has spent 4 years as the studio manager at Touchstone Center for Crafts and 5 years as the kiln technician at Vermont Clay Studio. Since his arrival at Clayworks Jim has taught a variety of classes and introduced scores of students to the communal fun and magic of firing a 2-chamber noborigama style wood and salt kiln.

COURTNEY FITZGIBBON is a Maryland native who attended Washington College, where she completed both her BA and Masters degrees. Courtney is a certified art teacher with 7 years of teaching experience in Maryland public schools. She has experience in numerous art mediums and is excited to teach children’s classes at Baltimore Clayworks.

PEGGY FOWLER is one of the newest members of the Clayworks community, becoming a resident artist in the fall of 2007. Her small scale sculptural vessels are inspired by her observations of nature found in the Maryland landscape, her garden and the local farmer’s market. Her work has been featured in regional and national exhibitions and she recently received a purchase award in the 2008 International Orton Cone Box Show hosted by Baker University in Baldwin, KS.

YOSHI FUJII is the 2008–09 Lormina Salter Fellow and the most recent artist-resident at Clayworks as well as the city of Baltimore. Yoshi received his B.F.A from University of Southern Mississippi in 2002 and his M.F.A. from Southern Illinois University Carbondale in 2008. His interest is in wheel-thrown porcelain utilitarian and sculptural work. His current work and additional information is available at: www.yoshifujii.com

COURTNEY GOVER is a certified teacher who taught in the Baltimore City Public School system for four years. After the birth of her son, she starting working for Baltimore Clayworks in the Community Arts Program at AFYA Public Charter School. She also teaches family workshops, birthday parties, teen clay, and children’s summer camps at the Mt. Washington Campus. She has studied Ceramics at The Potter’s Guild of Baltimore, The Penland School of Crafts, and at Baltimore Clayworks for the last five years. Courtney enjoys making wheel thrown pottery, hand built functional wares, as well as clay sculpture.

SARAH HOUSE is a Baltimore native who attended Temple University’s Tyler School of Art where she earned her BFA in Ceramics/Glass in 2006. Upon graduation she received the prestigious Windgate Fellowship for emerging artists. Sarah used the fellowship opportunity to travel to Hungary where she became an Artist in Residence at the International Ceramics Studio in Kecskemet. She currently resides in Baltimore is an instructor at The Community College of Baltimore County Essex as well as Baltimore Clayworks.

MATT HYLECK is a resident artist of Baltimore Clayworks whose outstanding pots earned him a Maryland State Arts Council Individual Artist Fellowship award in Craft both in 2007 and 2005. Galleries throughout the mid-Atlantic have exhibited his sophisticated shino-glazed utilitarian stoneware and porcelain. He serves as the education coordinator for all adult programs at Baltimore Clayworks Mt. Washington campus. In the summer of 2005, he completed an artist-residency at Tainan National University for the Arts in Tainan, Taiwan ROC. His recent work may be seen at: www.matthewhyleck.com

SHIN-YEON JEON received her BFA in Oriental Painting from Ewha Womans University, South Korea in 1992. She received her graduate certificate in Ceramics from Hood College, MD in 2003 and earned her MFA from Towson University, MD in 2007. Shin-Yeon’s work has been included in over 95 solo and group exhibitions throughout the United States and Korea. She continues to teach a variety of courses - ranging from ceramic concept and purpose to human figure modeling - in the Baltimore and D.C. area including Towson University. Her current work may be seen at www.shinyeon.com.

JOANN KANDEL has been a resident artist and teacher at Baltimore Clayworks since 1998. Her whimsical porcelain tableware illustrates a variety of bird, amphibian and insect life. She is an accomplished studio artist and her pottery career began more than 12 years ago as a student here at Clayworks. Her greatest pleasures in the studio are with the complexities found in glaze application and in working with students new to clay.

TRISHA KYNER has a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and an MFA in ceramics from the University of Montana, Missoula. She has recently moved to Baltimore from the San Francisco bay area where she taught both ceramics and sculpture. Her ceramic figures have been shown at Grounds For Sculpture in New Jersey and at the California Clay Conference in Davis, CA. She is also co-founder of the public sculpture collaborative “Grendel’s Mother.”

KRISTY MASTALINSKI is an educator in the Baltimore County School system and has been teaching middle school aged students for 6 years. Kristy holds a Bachelors degree in Elementary Education as well as Special Education. Kristy also has a Masters degree in math education from New York State. Actively involved in her students’ lives Kristy has coached several sports and extra-curricular activities. As an artist, Kristy has recently dived into the wonderful world of clay, primarily focusing on wheel-thrown functional ware.

SARAH MCCANN is a Baltimore based community artist that partners with individuals and organizations to facilitate projects that use existing systems of behavior to form deeper human relationships and create opportunities for reflection and growth. In addition to teaching at Baltimore Clayworks, she is currently the community artist-in-residence with the Stadium School Youth Dreamers, a non-profit organization dedicated to decreasing the amount of violence youth are exposed to after school by opening a youth run youth center. She is originally from Huntington, New York and received a B.S. in studio art from New York University. She moved to Baltimore in 2007 to attend the Maryland Institute College of Art MA in Community Arts program. Sarah has facilitated public and collaborative projects in Baltimore and looks forward to continuing her work in Baltimore City and other urban centers.

SONYA MEEKER has been a resident artist for over 8 years with Baltimore Clayworks. She began her clay career first as a student in the Clayworks classrooms in 1996. Over the years she has pushed and refined her delicate stoneware and porcelain while continuing to explore and expand her glaze vocabulary. Sonya spends her days working as a researcher at the Johns Hopkins University while working in her studio late in to the night.

FAYE MENIS graduated with a BFA from Alfred University in 2000. She recently taught at Catonsville Community College where she was the ceramic technician since 2006. Faye has over 6 years of teaching experience from Vermont Clay Studio, Shelburne Craft School, Studio 250, and was a resident artist at Anderson Ranch in 2001. Faye is a fabulous studio potter who has recently begun the life-long quest of motherhood and she is excited to get her hands dirty again.

AMANDA PELLERIN is a resident artist at Baltimore Clayworks, where she creates her sculpture and handbuilt functional works. She is a teacher at Clayworks, Maryland Hall and other venues, where her mosaic classes and workshops have produced wonderful student work. Amanda received her BFA from Maine College of Art and her MFA in Studio Ceramics from Towson University.

KAYLEIGH PORTER is an undergraduate student at the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore, MD, majoring in ceramics. Kay is involved in community arts projects such as the Community Milagros mural at the Good Shepherd Center, initiated by the center, artist Laura Jean McLaughlin and Baltimore Clayworks and funded by the Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation. Kay is a ceramics instructor at Good Shepherd in Halethorpe, MD, where she helps adolescent women therapeutically develop through clay.

VOLKER SCHOENFLIESS is one of the founding member artists of Baltimore Clayworks and he is a graduate of Towson University. In addition to being an instructor with Clayworks for 27 years Volker is an instructor at the Baltimore School for the Arts and the JCC at Owings Mills. His narrative figurative ceramic work illustrates a wry sense of humor and whimsical take on human nature.

LESLIE SHELLOW has a BFA from Maryland Institute College of Art and her MFA from Towson University. She has 3 years experience as a high school ceramics and photography teacher and has been a student at Baltimore Clayworks for the past 4 years. In the past 3 years she has taught teen wheel and clay after school in addition to adult Try It classes and summer workshops for teens.

LEXY SINGER is an art educator in Fredrick County, Maryland. She has studied in Sorrento, Italy in 2006 and Isreal in 2008. Lexy graduated with a Masters of Art in Teaching in 2008, she holds a BFA from Maryland Institute College of Art. Lexy has been teaching as a faculty in MICA’s Young People’s Studio since 2005.

GARY SLAVINSKY holds a BFA from Alfred University in New York and an MFA from MICA in Baltimore. Gary has been a teacher at Clayworks since fall 2007 and continues to explore and refine his wheel thrown and hand-built ceramic expressions. His teaching experience ranges from college level ceramic foundations to working with pre-school age youngsters. He is currently working for Union Memorial Hospital leading online marketing efforts. You may review his work at: www.garyslavinsky.com

COLLETTE SMITH is a resident artist of Baltimore Clayworks who seriously entered into a studio career after spending two years in Cali, Colombia, as a Peace Corps volunteer. She has taught and exhibited her sumptuously glazed functional pots at Baltimore Clayworks; Silvermine Guild of Artists in New Canaan, Connecticut; Long Beach Island Foundation of the Arts and Sciences in Loveladies, New Jersey; and at the Clay Art Center, Port Chester, New York.

MARLENE SOKOLOSKI SANDLER is one of the founding members of Baltimore Clayworks. She is a long time resident of Mt. Washington, and has remained actively involved in the clay community. Marlene has been an art educator for over 30 years, and now teaches several children’s classes at our Mt. Washington studios. Her own work, in porcelain and celadon, incorporates stamps and impressions made in the clay, inspired by her own work within the community.

PAMELA THEIS became a resident artist at Baltimore Clayworks in the fall of 2007. She earned her MFA from San Diego State University and her BFA from the University of Florida. In her work she combines elements found in nature, such as plant and sea life, to create utilitarian sculpture. Pamela has found that daily use of these sculptures can strengthen the bonds of a community. For current more artist information please visit www.pamelatheis.com

RACHEL VALSING received her BFA and Masters of Arts in Teaching at MICA during 2006-2007. She is currently a fine arts teacher at Lansdowne High School and has worked in clay with a range of age groups including collaborations with her young son.

JOE VITEK started with Baltimore Clayworks in 1987, and was a resident until 1995. Joe worked as hospital corpsman/medical illustration tech, and a production medical artist. In 1964 he started working with clay while at the Corcoran, studied in Tamba, Japan and has been a functional potter ever since.

SAM WALLACE is a traditional Jamaican potter who became a resident artist and kiln technician for Baltimore Clayworks in 1993. His work has been featured in numerous regional and national exhibitions. He was a featured demonstrator for the 1995 National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts Conference. Sam continues to teach and exhibit his work primarily through a wide range of artist residencies throughout Baltimore City, surrounding counties, and the neighboring mid-Atlantic region, including New Hampshire, Virginia and Pennsylvania.

LARS WESTBY is a resident artist of Baltimore Clayworks whose earthenware sculpture has been exhibited in prestigious galleries in the Baltimore area region and across the U.S. and Taiwan. Notably Lars was a recipient of a Maryland State Arts Council Individual Artist Fellowship award in Craft both in 2005 and 2007. In spring 2007 he completed a 4 month artist-residency at Tainan National University for the Arts in Tainan, Taiwan ROC.

DINA WESTON-SNEAD completed her MFA at Syracuse University in 2007 and she holds a BFA from the Corcoran School of Art and Design. She has taught as an adjunct instructor at Syracuse University, Towson University and Goucher College. Her figurative ceramic works confront the vulnerabilities of human interaction and relationships. Interested in social disparities and cultural differences, she places her figures into situations that call a response within the viewer.

ROSE ZAESKE earned a BFA from the Corcoran School of Art in Washington, D.C. Her artwork includes painting as well as ceramic sculpture, along with a bit of creative writing. She earns a living with the Johns Hopkins Medicine Simulation Center as the Manager of the Standardized Patient & Teaching Associate Programs. She also stays busy raising her daughter, who continues to be another source of inspiration in life and art.

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