Désirée Petty is back in NC after a year-long residency at the Worcester Center for Crafts in Worcester, MA. Her functional ceramics use mark-making and glazing techniques she refined while working on a series of ceramic pieces based on her observations of dying coral reefs in 2014. Petty works out of her Concord, NC studio and teaches at Clayworks in Charlotte, NC.

Artist Statement:

I am continually re-examining the line between functional and sculptural through the medium of clay. I continue forward by exploring new relationships between the two, and creating opportunities in the work where they intersect. A single ceramic vessel alone can easily have over a 1,000 individual marks. As the maker, the act of repetitively pushing a tool in the clay to make these marks becomes a meditation on my own life and the physical and emotional impressions that others have left behind. The marks made in the clay serve as a tangible expression of experiences and interactions with others. As finished pieces the work is meant to spark introspective conversation where others begin to ask themselves who created their marks and how were they changed.