Bio
Claire Shenk Rodgershas been working in clay and teaching ceramics for over 30 years. Claire came to Philadelphia, PA as a resident artist at The Clay Studio in 1976; and continued her involvement there as an Associate Artist, exhibiting artist and executive board member. She has been a ceramic school director, owner/manager, teacher and workshop leader. Claire leads “Pottery Walking Tours” of both the Philadelphia Art Museum and the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. Claire exhibits ceramics and large sculptural forms from her studio in Philadelphia, and at Gallery 37 - a Destination for Artful Living - in Milford Delaware
Artist Statement
Volume, Surface and Edge: My forms draw together my attraction for the volume inside the work, a painterly surface, and edge design and flow. These pots are covered with stoneware and porcelain slips, clay additions and impressed lines. They are fired, delineated with wax and stains, spray glazed and re-fired.
Ceramic art, as it is made, is a form of living communication. The presence of a pot flows through its volume: this flow is contained by the foot, the walls and the rim. A vessel’s rim is its frame; it contains its volume and all that surges within it. The silhouette and surface graphics are extensions of this volume, and carry with them painterly images.
My ceramic experience has been both functional and sculptural. I work in both porcelain and stoneware, including colored clays. I feel that within the boundaries of the ceramic field, I can reach for an artistic whole that expresses my spirit. It is my desire to create vital forms that revel in a subtle attention to detail.
