Current News and Events:

MWSU Clay Guild – Off the Table: Clay for the Wall 2018

              Potter Fine Arts Gallery
              Missouri Western State University
              4525 Downs Drive
              St. Joseph, MO  64507
              1-816-271-4282  

Exhibition opens Feb.23rd, with reception 6-8PM

Exhibition closes March 23rd
Juror: Novie Trump

@Florida CraftArt, in St.Petersburg, Florida

February 10-March 24, 2018

Lightheaded: New Directions in Fine Craft Lighting
Curators Mary Anna Murphy and Catherine Woods.
This exhibit promises to make viewers take a renewed look at fine-craft lighting. It presents new materials paired with lighting, shows current trends in using LED lights, and pushes the audience to consider amping up the art in their own home lighting.
February 10, 5:30 – 8:00 p.m. Opening reception
March 24, 5:30 – 8:00 p.m. Closing reception

See Fluted Vase at the Freeport Art Museum!

The Freeport Art Museum's 13th Annual Regional Juried Exhibition
November 11, 2016 - February 18, 2017
Opening Reception Friday November 11th, 5-8 PM
Freeport Art Museum 121 North Harlem Freeport, IL

http://www.freeportartmuseum.com/annual-regional-juried

Exhibiting Artists:  Pamela Andros, Jean Apgar, Nick Baxter, Sara Slee Brown, Jim Davis, Doug DeWitt, Mark Dierker, Simone Doing and Max Puchalsky, Joan Geary, Sarvin Haghighi, Carol Hamilton, David Hauptschein, Eric Hazeltine, Eric Hazeltine, Kathleen Isacson, Stephen Jensen, Katsy Johnson, Yvette Kaiser Smith, Deanna Krueger, Cindy Lesperance, Bert Leveille, Judy Lipman Shechter, Bob Logsdon, Jeanne Ludeke, Benjamin Madeska, Carol Mantey, Janice Meister, Taylor Mezo, Leah Mitchell, Paul Nitsche, Paul Pinzarrone, Gina Robbins, Kathleen Roman, Kathryn Scott, Elizabeth Shriver, Dan Spahn, Frank Spidale, Rebecca Stahr, Randal Stringer, Daniel Tajlili, Linda Vietmeyer, Candace Wark and Shirley Nannini, Zachary Williams, Sandra Wilson

"Balance" and "Dark Embrace" are in the Divided Attraction Exhibition starting on April 8th.

Divided Attraction is a juried exhibition open to artists working in all three-dimensional medium, functional or sculptural. Exhibition will showcase accepted contemporary artworks addressing the nature of magnitude, duality and connectivity.

Exhibition dates: April 8th-May 28th

Location:
Gilded Pear Gallery
808 Third Avenue SE
Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52403

Opening Reception- April 8th 5-8pm

Interwoven Vessel was chosen for the 2016 All-Media show at the Octagon Center for the Arts, one of 69 pieces of artwork selected from 350 works submitted from across the United States.

FOR MORE INFORMATION:

https://www.facebook.com/events/1475634992766370/

http://www.freeportartmuseum.com/10th-annual-regional-juried-exhibition

From the Daily Iowan:

http://www.dailyiowan.com/2015/08/04/Metro/42703.html

Returning Clay to Nature

BY ALLIE BISCUPSKI | AUGUST 04, 2015 5:00 AM

As picturesque as a coral reef, Elizabeth Shriver’s art, displayed in the Chait Galleries, 218 E. Washington St., aims to pay homage to the free-flowing structures of nature.

“I’m trying to achieve something that’s beautiful and lifelike and yet not actually replicating nature,” she said. “I want it to be something different but that evokes that feeling of something growing.”

Shriver is a ceramics artist. But instead of using a pottery wheel, the Iowa native prefers to craft her pieces out of clay slabs and coils.

“I do a lot of building with slabs,” she said. “Which is basically just a flat piece of clay that you can cut into any shape you want.”

A selection of Shriver’s pieces wrapped up their display in the Chait Galleries today. Emily Wolfe, a gallery attendant, said Shriver’s 3D pieces stand out from the rest of the gallery’s visual array.

“We don’t carry a lot of ceramic work, so she has that corner in the market,” Wolfe said. “Her pieces are very organic and natural. We usually just have 2D work, so having some 3D sculptures is a nice addition to round out the artwork that we have.”

Shriver did not expect to become a ceramics artist growing up.

“[Art] was something I always knew I wanted to do,” she said. “I didn’t know I would end up doing ceramics; that was a surprise.”

Her discovery of the medium happened while attending the University of Iowa in the 1980s.

“I was majoring in psychology, but I was taking art classes,” she said. “I’d taken some drawing, painting, and I just decided to try ceramics.”

She also credits her instructor for spurring her passion in the medium. 

“I had a really good instructor. She was inspiring, and I just found I loved it,” she said. “I couldn’t sleep at night because I had images of things I wanted to make.”

Today, Shriver spends her time working on sculpture, which can be an intensive process. A piece titled Coral Bouquet took her around 40 hours to complete, which, Shriver said, she labored on five to six hours a day to the point the sculpture was so massive that it could barely be squeezed in her kiln.

For all artists and aspiring artists, Shriver has a piece of advice.

“It’s kind of a cliché, but get a day job if you can because you’re free to do what you want with your art, rather than having to do some bread and butter work,” she said. “But it helps to just be flexible with your work. And don’t give up.”