ABOUT RHONA……

My Vessels

As a teacher who sat in many school staff meetings, I learned to doodle. On the sides of my notebooks, you could follow page after page of doodles. Patterns emerged, as well as a certain visual sensation and my creative doodles eventually became more sophisticated. As my ceramic interests expanded, I sought to transfer my doodling to ceramics. I discovered sgrafitto! My sgraffito vessels, lively and offbeat, should evoke amusement, playfulness, whimsy and enthusiasm. Though I no longer sit through staff meetings (thank goodness!), I am still creating sensations and discovering patterns through doodles, not in the margins of notebooks but on the surfaces of my clay vessels.

Over half of my life was lived in Asia and Africa as a teacher and librarian in international schools, and throughout all of my life I sought outlets for my creativity. For a while, my work as an educator satisfied a creative thirst. But eventually I needed more.

While living in Indonesia, I took life drawing classes with Teguh Ostenrik , an Indonesian artist. I discovered my desire for other levels of creativity. Teguh suggested that I work in clay. I was instantly hooked to a material that was forgiving and ever changing. For me it was a material that I could explore with inquiry. I worked under the tutelage of an Indonesian sculptor Dolorosa Sinaga (instagram: @dolorosasinaga) who inspired my progress in clay.

In my decade in Africa, split between the rich cultures of Ghana and South Africa, I studied ceramics under the guidance of veteran potters John Shirley and Michele Legg at The Pottery Studio in Johannesburg. It was here that I embarked on a more deliberate exploration of ceramic vessels. In 2018, my work was accepted and shown at the Ceramics Southern Africa Regional Exhibition.

My move to Asheville in 2019 was partly inspired from the creative opportunities I knew existed here. My work was featured in an article in Asheville Made in Octobrer 2021 which was personally exciting. My blog post on that article can be found here.

My work can be found at the following galleries: