Amythest Warrington ( She/Her )

Amythest’s work explores the beauty and pain of loss through art. Each flower is a physical representation of a moment, freezing it in time forever and making it visible for all to see. She bears down into the clay, then removes the object, leaving a void to visually represent the emotional weight an experience leaves on us by making the invisible visible. Amythest utilizes clay’s unique physical properties of malleability, recyclability, and permanence to explore the dichotomy between strength and frailty as an allegory to the human condition. The meticulously crafted beautiful objects draw you into serious and often taboo subjects to comfort those who need it, yet capable of confronting those who are complacent on these human and social issues.

Amythest’s current body of work stems from her experiences along her journey of healing after her husband committed suicide. She uses her experiences of loss and isolation to create artwork that is relatable to those who are experiencing similar emotions, regardless of what created their loss and isolation. Addictions, COVID, war, and natural disasters leave much of the population exposed to the same raw heart-wrenching emotions. Her passion is to embrace these emotions in a safe setting to stimulate awareness and even allow healing to begin through art.

 Amythest believes art is a powerful tool capable of challenging established norms, creating opportunities to practice empathy, critical thinking, and social change. She uses her life experiences along with events she witnesses as inspiration for her art. She often combines multiple experiences of similar emotional weight to allow for a range of connections for the viewer to approach the work from. Her mobile upbringing as a military child exposed Amythest to many different cultures and taught her that although details may differ from group to group, the core experiences of loss, empathy and belonging are a universal language that connects us. Her intent is to create objects that comfort those who need it while challenging those who are comfortable. 

Amythest Hultman Warrington was born in Iowa City, Iowa, but she was raised in a mobile military family growing up around the U.S. and Europe. She received her Bachelor of Fine Art in ceramics with minors in Art History, and Art from the University of Northern Iowa in 2014. While working on her bachelor’s, she studied abroad at the Jingdezhen Ceramic Institute for a semester in Jingdezhen, China, through West Virginia University’s China Program. Amythest ended up taking enough studio classes to emphasize in three different areas: painting, jewelry & metals, and ceramics. In 2021, Warrington received her Master of Fine Art emphasizing in Ceramics, with a minor in Textiles, Merchandizing and Fashion Design at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. Between her undergraduate and graduate studies, she was a resident artist and later the Interim Director of the Iowa Ceramics Center and Glass Studio in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.