Alyssa Wood

Alyssa Wood grew up in Richmond, VA and Indianapolis, IN.  She studied art at UNC-Chapel Hill and Penland School for Crafts and worked as a studio assistant to Cary Esser.  Currently, she makes sculptural and drawn ceramic tiles as well as mixed media drawings.  Her most recent series of tiles play on themes of home and nostalgia with images of birthday cakes and obsolete technology like rotary telephones and typewriters.

In the past year, she has shown her work at the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft, Green Hill Center for North Carolina Art, and Artspace (Raleigh, NC).  This spring her work will be included in group shows at UNC-Charlotte and Janette Kennedy Gallery in Dallas, TX.  Recently, she was awarded a 2007 McKnight Foundation fellowship through the Northern Clay Center in Minneapolis, MN.

Alyssa serves as a consultant to Creative Art Exchange for Program Management, working on issues centering around faculty recruitment, scheduling, and studio management.

Jane Ellithorpe

Award winning Davidson artist Jane Ellithorpe teaches drawing and watercolor classes for Creative Art Exchange.  Fascinated by light and shadow, color and design, Jane enjoys teaching both adults and children of all ability levels.  Her goal is to move each student from where they are to where they want to go with their art.  Jane also enjoys basketry, origami and many other media.

Scott Cummins

Scott Cummins discovered his passion for clay as a student at Alfred State College in NY.  He is a graduate of the Art Institute of Pittsburgh with a degree in Industrial Design. 

Scott teaches intermediate to advanced ceramics classes for Creative Art Exchange.  His “Clayheads” group on Monday evenings and Raku Workshops are popular offerings.  He currently works in his studio in Statesville were his work is focused on soda-fired stoneware.

Allison Luce

Allison Luce teaches ceramics for Creative Art Exchange.  Her Winter 2008 classes will be Extrusion/Slab Rolling and Clay Sculpture.  She is a studio artist at Clayworks Studio and Gallery.  Her work has appeared in IMAGE JOURNAL and in Faith and Vision:  Twenty-five Years of Christians in the Visual Arts and It Was Good Making Art to the Glory of God.

Allison relocated to Charlotte in 2006 from New York City where she completed a residency in the ceramics department and spoke about her work at the New York Center for Art and Media Studies.  Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Allison holds an MFA in Painting from Hunter College, City University of New York.  She is a graduate of Ohio University Summa Cum Laude with dual degrees in Painting and Art History.

Darla Hudson

Darla Hudson has a passion for pots!  Working on the wheel and with slabs, her work is influenced by the elements of her home state where water, flora and fauna come to life in the colors, textures and shapes of her work.  She enjoys teaching individuals to explore their inner creativity through clay at the Creative Art Exchange.

 As an avid collector of pottery who later became a professional potter, Darla has been inspired by workshops taught by Tom Coleman, Gay Smith, Michael Sherril, Daniel Johnson and Suze Lindsay.  She has also worked with local Charlotte area artists in both student and colleague capacity, and she has been a member of the Carolina Clay Matters Pottery Guild for several years. Darla works in her studio in Mooresville, North Carolina, tucked away on a creek in the woods.  Beaver Creek Pottery is the ideal place to gather inspiration.  Beaver Creek takes its name from several active beaver dams on the creek, and like Darla’s energy, this lively and active area is part of all her clay creations.

Shari Crouse

                  Currently a studio potter in Mooresville, Shari Crouse has been making wheel thrown and hand built high fire stoneware for over 30 years. She began as a teenager with lessons from Cleota Reed, author of “Henry Chapman Mercer and the Moravian Pottery and Tile Works”.  Later she attended Alfred University studying ceramic art.  Shari joined Creative Art Exchange in 2005, teaching beginning wheel to the “Teens and Tweens”, and handbuilding classes for adults. 

Shari says, "Teaching has expanded my creativity and exploration of clay in presenting skills and ideas to others.  I find joy in creating both aesthetic elements and functionality in my work.  The elements of nature are incorporated in much of the forms of my work as I apply clay representations of bark, leaves, acorns, and flowers.  I also experiment with a variety of textures, creating interest and pieces that ask to be touched.  Recently, I have explored handbuilt work combined with mosaic glass and pieces of pottery.  I also enjoy combining thrown pieces and handbuilt work."

Keith Meyers

Keith Meyers has been making functional pottery for the past ten years.  Originally focusing on traditional and functional pieces, he recently began altering forms to create sculptural works of art.  His goal is to combine art and function in his clay works.

Raised in Johnstown, PA, Keith earned his bachelors degree in Fine Arts from Indiana University of Pennsylvania.  His studio is in Concord, NC.  He teaches ceramics classes at Creative Art Exchange, focusing on use of the pottery wheel for beginners and intermediate students.  In class, his altered wheel forms are a subject of much discussion.

Keith sells his work at Wilkes Art Gallery in Wilkesboro, NC and at the Carolina Clay Connection in Charlotte, NC.  He also participates in three festival shows during the year and in Creative Art Exchange’s annual Faculty and Staff Show and Sale in December.

Amy Sanders
I am fascinated with creating works in clay that balance visual elements of form, texture and pattern with utility. Early in the construction process, clay is soft and pliable; I enjoy building pieces that reflect these properties even after the clay has become hard from firing. Whether a piece is thrown on the wheel or hand built with thin slabs, textures are impressed into the soft surface with handmade clay stamps. Surfaces and designs in textiles, architecture and nature influence the motifs. While some pieces have added feet and gesture to create a playful attitude and seem personified, others borrow directly from the quilting tradition of patchwork. Specific patterning of stamps creates interplay of positive and negative space that generates a surface worthy of deeper investigation. Thinly stretched stamped surfaces turn into "Fabrics" which are then pieced and pinched together appearing quilted, as though they are filled with air.

www.theretherepottery.com

Sharon Conner

 After working as a Graphic Designer for eight years, Sharon Conner started investigating art education.  She became began teaching for the Children’s Arts Project in 1998.  She is currently working with the Children’s Arts Project at the Children’s Community School, Davidson, NC; teaching 4th and 5th grade art.  With a particular love for graphite drawing, Sharon works in a variety of media, exploring them with children to help them find their own style.  She will begin teaching drawing for youth at Creative Art Exchange in Spring 2008.

Sharon Conner received her Bachelor of Fine Arts specializing in Graphic Design from Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa in 1988. She obtained her Highly Qualified License – Art Education in spring 2007. Currently she is working on her Graduate Certificate in Art Education at UNC- Charlotte.

David Kaylor

With a life-long interest in wood, David began woodturning in the early nineties. Since retiring as a religion professor at Davidson College in 1999, he has devoted more time to this passion. He has attended weekend demonstrations by Rude Osolnik and Liam O'Neill. He has studied with Darrell Rhudy of Raleigh, N.C., and at John C. Campbell Folk School. A member of the American Association of Woodturners, he attended national symposia in 1998, 2000 and 2002.

He currently serves as President of North Carolina Woodturners, having completed 4 years on the board of directors. David works at his studio in his home in Davidson, where he also mentors new turners. He also teaches woodturning at the Icehouse Center for Creativity, Craft and Design in Davidson. He displays his work in the Icehouse Gallery and at the Hickory Museum of Art, as well as in a gallery in his studio. David serves as a founding member of the Icehouse Center board. He holds membership in the Lake Norman Art League and the Mooresville Artists Guild and has won awards in competitive shows sponsored by those organizations, as well as in the 2004 North Carolina Woodturning Show and Competition in Hickory, NC.

In turning bowls, vases and other hollow vessels, David seeks to reveal the natural character and beauty of wood. To do that, he concentrates on simple forms and a natural-looking wood surface. He prefers to work with local North Carolina woods, especially from trees whose history he or his friends know.

Richard Siegel

Dick Siegel's work is a collaborative effort with nature where technique, control and self-expression are realized. Watercolor painting is his first love: depicting beautiful landscapes and seascapes. He also enjoys working with different types of wood, turning bowls and building custom furniture.
He has been an artist and craftsman for 50 years. Presently, he lives in Charlotte, North Carolina where he has a studio and gallery. A degree in fine arts from the Massachusetts College of Art was the beginning of his journey. He has also studied at the University of Frankfurt in Germany. At the North Bennet Industrial School in Boston, he developed an interest in furniture making and at the Wentworth Institute in Boston, he studied architectural drawing.

He says, "Teaching is a stimulating challenge. The Cambridge Center for Adult Education in Massachusetts and the Dallas Creative Arts Center in Texas have been just two of the many places where my students have inspired me." In addition to teaching at Creative Art Exchange, he is an instructor at Queens University and Central Piedmont Community College in Charlotte, North Carolina. His work is in many private and corporate collections.  His website is:(http://www.richardsiegelstudio.com/about.html )

Creative Art Exchange is located in the Cornelius Arts Center