Sara Beth Truman – Alumna Spotlight

Artist and Co-Owner, Studio TM

Hometown: Paducah, KY
MFA in Art, emphasis in ceramics (2012)
Studio website
Instagram
Artist website
Art Axis website

 

Sara Truman is a ceramic artist and educator living in Gainesville, FL. She earned her BFA in Ceramics and Painting from Western Kentucky University, and attended a postbaccalaureate program at the University of Florida. After receiving her MFA in Art from the University of Mississippi, she was a resident artist at the Odyssey Center for Ceramics Art in Asheville, NC, and LUX Center for the Arts in Lincoln, NE. She was the Visual and Performing Arts Department Chair and Ceramics Instructor at Gainesville High School.  She is now co-owner of Studio T/M Pottery and Clay, which serves as her studio space, in addition to offering community classes.

“My current investigations in clay are a direct relation to my own daily rituals. A handmade mug for coffee in the morning, a tumbler for water throughout the day, and a voluminous tea bowl for tea in the evening. As vessel maker these utilitarian objects keep me excitedly making to find my next favorite one in a series. I believe the more voluptuous the form the better for both containment and consumption. I create these larger forms to give me a grander surface to address with my surface decoration. These blank canvases lined up on my table beacon to be attended. Inspired by abstract expressionist paintings of the 1950’s and 60’s I lay my colors out in front of me working intuitively across several pieces at a time. Using underglazes as paint I layer washes of color to build a history of mark making on the surface. After several of these layers are built up I use a sgraffito tool to carve back through the slip and reveal small lines of the dark clay body.  After glazing I brush each one with a thin coat of lithium wash in certain areas to reveal more through the layers of slip and underglaze. When finished I send them out into the world for someone else’s daily ritual to experience.”

You can follow me, @sbtruman, and my ceramics studio, @studiotmceramics, on Instagram!

Make sure to check Studio T/M Pottery & Clay‘s website and my Art Axis page for more images.