Birdie Boone is a maker of pots and researcher of the domestic realm,
especially social tendencies and their effects on personal identity with
regard to food and modern lifestyle. She has taught ceramics at the
university level and has been involved in many ways with clay centers
across the country.
Birdie grew up in both the slow culture of southwestern Virginia and the fast
culture of the city of San Francisco. She was always encouraged to be
creative and declared an intent to be a potter at the age of six.
Birdie Boone received her BA in art from The College of William and Mary
in Virginia in 1994 and an MFA in Artisanry/Ceramics from the University of
Massachusetts, Dartmouth in 2005. Birdie was notably a long-term resident
artist at The Archie Bray Foundation for the Ceramic Arts in Helena,
Montana, from 2007 to 2009.
Known for her minimalist handbuilt tableware and atypical glaze colors,
Birdie currently lives and maintains her studio practice in Santa Fe, New
Mexico. Her ceramic work can be found at galleries across the country,
including Anthony Schaller Gallery in St. Joseph, MI; The Northern Clay
Center in Minneapolis, MN; and The Clay Studio in Philadelphia, PA. For
more information and updates on shows and workshops, visit her website:
Artist’s Statement, 2014
"My ceramic dishes are minimal objects; they are understated and are, at
times, even overlooked. Invest a little time with them and you will discover
subtle elements that form the dialect by which I translate what I observe
around me. My intent is to address the significance of the domestic
experience through the honesty of simply composed forms and thoughtfully
developed glazes. There are no unnecessary details; every element is
carefully considered. An individual, family, or community may be rendered
through soft, volumetric forms and tinted transparent glaze applied over an
opaque slip discloses the dark clay beneath. These collaborate to create a
complex visual depth replete with connotations. This sense-full ideology
requires only that the user be open to its possibilities. Thus, my pots are
not only useful objects, they are also subjects that have the ability to affect
their users’ sensibilities and to act upon the domestic spaces they occupy."
