The Cup: Emily Schroeder Willis - Chicago, IL

Emily Schroeder Willis Cup oxidized porcelain, 2011
(5.5 x 4 inches) CUP 159 $40

Emily Schroeder Willis Cup oxidized porcelain, 2011
(5 x 3.5 inches) CUP 160 $35

Statement:

Elements of touch, intimacy and mark making are extremely important to the work that I make.  I create subtle forms on which I draw imagery that is sensitive to how each pot was touched and formed.  An aspect unique to my work is that every movement and gesture is marked and recorded on the surface of my pots.  I have chosen this rather slow and tedious process of pinching because I believe that pinching pots instead of throwing them on a wheel or building them with slabs creates a different type of intimacy. I see my fingerprints as a sort of brush stroke.  In the way that a painter paints a canvas and creates a certain sensibility in the image, I create an intimacy in my work by the way that my fingers touch the clay.  Human presence and the mark of the hand are important to my work, which steps back to a time where work isn't about production, but the touch of a fingertip.

Emily Schroeder Willis Teabowl oxidized porcelain, 2011
(3 x 4.5 x 4.5 inches) CUP 161 $45

Emily Schroeder Willis Teabowl oxidized porcelain, 2011
(4 x 4 x 4 inches) CUP 162 $45 SOLD

Bio:

Emily Schroeder received her MFA from the University of Colorado, Boulder in 2006. She is the recipient of numerous awards and scholarships, including the 2001 Jerome Fellowship from the Northern Clay Center and the Sage Scholarship from the Archie Bray Foundation. She has exhibited her work across North America as well as in Europe, Central America and Australia.   She has been an artist-in-residence/visiting artist at the Archie Bray Foundation in Montana, the Zentrum für Keramik in Berlin, Germany and at the Alberta College of Art and Design in Canada. 

Emily will also be a presenter for the upcoming 2012 Utilitarian Clay Conference at Arrowmont School for the Arts and Crafts in Tennessee this September.  Currently, she has a studio in Chicago at Lillstreet Art Center. 

Website: http://www.emilyschroeder.com/