Drawn from the ground
Tighe ridley & Willow stevenson
ceramics exhibition and gallery sales
Opening Reception June 3, 5:30 pm
Join us at Starworks on June 3, 2023, 5:30pm for the Opening Reception of Drawn from the Ground. This exhibition is presented by Starworks Ceramics interns Tighe Ridley and Willow Stevenson. The artists will be on hand during the reception to discuss and share their work and process. Works for sale will be available for immediate purchase through School House Gallery.
Items remaining in the exhibit will be available to the public for viewing and purchase through August 12, 2023.
Starworks Artist Receptions are free and open to the public of all ages. Light refreshments will be available. Additional drinks and snacks may be purchased through the Starworks Cafe & Taproom.
LIVE at the Cafe performance by local musician, Rod Brady, starts at 7pm. All ages; no cover.
Tighe Ridley
Tighe Ridley is a potter originally from western Massachusetts and an intern in the ceramics supply shop here at Starworks. He graduated from Bennington College with a BA in May of 2022. Ridley believes a pot is an object of common ground – a touchstone between him, the maker, and another who felt drawn to a handmade object. As a throughway for an exchange of information; Ridley’s work is simultaneously personal and sensorial, cultural and anthropological. The pots communicate the inherent softness of wet clay, and a steadiness of proportion and spirit. As making is an extension of an individuals focus, Ridley is deeply curious of the variability that arises within each form, and as such he makes in batches with an idea in mind that he allows himself to stray softly from.
Willow Stevenson
I long for rhododendron, the deep green of its waxy leaves reflected in a river's flow.
I can see mica shimmering in sand on the bank and up through the ever-changing currents.
I can remember my skin getting stained purple from picking black raspberries and the briars leaving
scrapes on my wrists, making the berries an even sweeter reward.
I long to see a shed snake skin caught on barbed wire, a reminder of transformation and how sometimes
even the sharp encroachments made by humans can become a part of the whole.
My work represents observations of the environment that I grew up in. It is a remembering of the
Appalachian landscape that is quickly fading before my eyes and beneath my feet.
By working with wild clay from North Carolina my work is rooted to this place. Wood firing creates
dynamic surfaces and texture on my clay pieces, highlighting the details in each flower of goldenrod,
each drupelet of a berry, each barb of wire. I can feel these creations moving through me and into the
clay, perhaps already in its memory, waiting to be shaped.
My drawings are characterized by my own lived experience and offer a glimpse into intimate moments.
When they are brought to life through animation, it feels as though time is being eclipsed. They are a
representation of what I am reaching for, what is dancing out in front of me, and things that I have
already let go of. They are history and prophecy tied together.
By using clay as a drawing material and hand drawn animations as a digital glaze, I create installations
that represent the tangled webs of land, water, time, and human bodies. It is a way to remember the
resiliency of these things that move in circles, cycles, and seasons. My installations and the process of
making my work is a way to record the past and have hope for the future.