Presenting Artists
Douglas Ford
Douglas Ford lives and works on the west coast of Florida, just off an exit made famous by a Jack Ketchum short story. He is the author of a recent collection of weird fiction, Ape in the Ring and Other Tales of the Macabre and Uncanny. His short stories have appeared in such venues as Dark Moon Digest, Tales to Terrify, Weird City, along with The Best Hardcore Horror, Volumes Three and Four. His novella, The Reattachment, appeared in 2019 courtesy of Madness Heart Press.
In this talk, Ford will discuss his role as a professor and a department chair at a 2-year institution, addressing the complexities of changing teaching modalities in the midst of a pandemic and the challenges such changes pose.
Emmett Freeman
Emmett Freeman is from Concord, New Hampshire. He completed his BFA in ceramics at the Maine College of Art in 2017. His work includes topics in the mundane experience, figurative sculpture, ceramic vessels. His work utilizes traditional and new methods to create work that engages an audience in an introspective space.
Emmett currently lives in St.Petersburg, FL making art from his home studio. He was recently featured in Ceramics Monthly Magazine and Maine Home and Design. He has taught at Haystack Mountain School for Craft, Maine College of Art, and Morean Arts center.
Jennifer Holman
Jennifer Holman is from Southwest Florida and is currently a senior at the University of Florida pursuing her BFA in ceramics. Her work explores themes relating to the macabre, while integrating materials and animation as a means to bridge the uncanny with the familiar.
Inspired by ancient practices of human sacrifice, her most recent series “Reliquary Heads,” takes on the form of decaying human heads that function as vessels for everyday objects. Through the combining of materials, she hopes to spark a conversation around consumerism, legacy and overall challenge ingrained colonial meanings of primitiveness.
Andrew Long
Andrew Long is a ceramic artist focusing on high fired functional ceramics. He received his BA in Visual Arts from Eckerd College concentrating in ceramics and social practice art. Currently he resides in Sarasota, Florida and is the 3D Lab Instructor at State College of Florida as well as the Exhibition Coordinator at Art Center Sarasota.
Sara Truman
Sara Truman is a ceramic artist and educator living in Gainesville, FL. She has her BFA from Western Kentucky University, in Bowling Green, KY, (2007) and her MFA from the University of Mississippi in Oxford, MS (2012). She is co-owner of Studio T/M Pottery & Clay, which serves as her studio space, in addition to offering community classes and a 1-year studio assistantship.
Taylor Robenalt
Taylor Robenalt attended Southern Methodist University for her BFA in bronze casting and stone carving. Then she received a graduate assistantship at the University of Georgia where Taylor accomplished her MFA in ceramics in May 2011. She is currently employed by Ringling College of Art and Design and has taught at State College of Florida, Auburn University and Columbus State University as an adjunct ceramic professor. Taylor was a long-term artist resident at Odyssey Clayworks. She is also the co-founder of a sculpture collective called Ceramic Sculpture Culture. She has participated in many national ceramic shows, such as “Un-wedged”, “Vision in Clay” “Bodies and Beings”, recently winning an honorable mention award at “De La Naturalaza” and “ Wild and Wooly Creatures” at Florida CraftArt. Taylor has giving multiple panels at NCECA as well as participated in shows. She has co-taught a workshop Penland School of Crafts in 2018 and this summer Taylor won the NCECA International Residency Award where she will be studying at A.I.R. Vallauris, France for a month. Taylor has received many scholarships including tuition waivers to Monte Verde, Costa Rica, Cortona, Italy, Tokoname, Japan, Watershed, Maine, Penland, North Carolina and Red Lodge, Montana.
Emmie Wells
Emmie Wells is a local Sarasota artist. Her work is focused on developing different methods of surface design over the last few years working with ceramics to create clean forms that often include quotes and images together. Her work often involves multiple methods of construction such as mold making, hand building and wheel throwing.