Susan DeMay

Susan DeMay produces functional and decorative stoneware pottery and other artistic forms, such as wall works, sculptural vases, and tile projects. She maintains a studio, Creek Ferry Pottery, in Smithville, Tennessee with the help of her spouse and a number of assistants. Her work includes a production line of tabletop wares as well as a series of art pieces. All clay work uses colorful glazes with a variety of surfaces, put together to create rich, expressive palettes and distinctive designs. Each series has evolved from many years of working with electric kilns fired to cone six.

Susan DeMay has taught classes and led workshops in many Middle Tennessee art programs, including Vanderbilt University (where she has taught ceramics for more than 20 years), the Appalachian Center for Crafts, Fisk University, Middle Tennessee State University, Sarratt Studio Program, and Watkins Art Institute. Her work has been featured in periodicals, and a number of her articles have been published in national and international publications.

Olive Tray (above). Click on the link to see a larger picture

Artist's Statement

My work takes two directions, which share the quality of "handmade-ness". The functional production pieces incorporate familiar shapes and forms, but the glazes show distinctive color, fluidity and design. The art pieces also show these features, as well as more unusual organic forms, most of which are slab-built. Their designs incorporate more free-form shapes, and the surface compositions show personal narratives and motifs inspired by quilts and paintings I admire. Both approaches exhibit my concern for balancing my technical knowledge and abilities with purely aestethic choices.

Fallen Leaves (left). Click on the link to see a larger picture.

See the gallery for more pictures.

Selected Exhibitions

2004 - Best of Tennessee Crafts: Tennessee Association of Craft Artists Biennial, Tennessee State Museum, Nashville, TN
2004 - Primary Colors, Artisans' Center of Virginia, Waynesboro, VA
- Regional Craft Invitational, John A. Logan College, Carterville, IL
2002 - TACA Biennial Exhibition, Hunter Museum of Art, Chattanooga, TN
2001 - Nashville Artists' Guild Exhibition: 50 Year Retrospective, The Parthenon, Nashville, TN
2000 - TACA Biennial Exhibition: Carol Reece Museum, Johnson City; Christian Brothers University Art Gallery, Memphis; McMinn Living Heritage Museum, Athens, TN

You may contact the artist at Creek Ferry Pottery, 801 South Mountain St., Smithville, TN 37166
tel: (615) 597-8867, e-mail: demay@dtccom.net

Last updated on January 2, 2008.