Amanda Bury

My drive to make functional pots comes from a deep admiration and reverence for the abundance of nature. I rely on the role of pots as vehicles for nourishment and their place as everyday objects in our homes. Through each piece, I quietly and somewhat subversively, convey my interest in the complex systems of culture, ethics, commerce, history, ritual, community, and environment found within the realm of food production. This web of systems serves as the foundation of influences for my practice. ​ The formal language of my work is rooted in function and based on growth patterns of nature. Each surface pays homage to the origins of food and systems of production. Backgrounds of abstracted imagery, often crop fields or plow rows create a landscape for handmade stamps and mono-print transferred drawings to occupy the foreground. These images are inspired by personal experiences in gardens and farms, as well as botanical and scientific illustrations from vintage seed catalogs and packets. My image library includes pollinators, to whom we owe much of our food supply; tools such as shovels, which reference the human hand in our agricultural system; and specific food/medicinal plants. Often I choose specific drawings based on associations to the form or function of the pot. It is important to me not to dissect the parts of the plant familiar to our kitchens from the natural whole. My work brings a broad focus to the food on your plate through abstraction, and quiet association and serves as a reminder of the joy and wonders to be found in the natural world, our vital place within it, and our responsibility to care for it.

Amanda grew up in the PNW region of the U.S. She received a Bachelor of Art in Anthropology and a Bachelor of Art in Studio Art from Central Washington University. She then went on to pursue Post-Baccalaureate study at the University of Montana. After her post-bacc study Amanda completed long-term residency positions at The Morean Center for Clay in Saint Petersburg, Florida, and at Belger Crane Yard Studios in Kansas City, Missouri. Amanda is now working as a full-time studio potter based in Winston-Salem North Carolina with her partner Seth Charles. She regularly exhibits in invitational and national juried exhibitions. Her work is held in both public and private collections worldwide.