2026, 9” x 8” & 20” x 8” , Media: Stoneware, Firing Process: Electric, Mid-range, Surface: Glazed, Unglazed
Photo credit: Andrew Castañeda
2025, 21” x 5” x 2”, Media: Stoneware, Firing Process: Electric, Mid-range, Surface: Engobe / Slip / Underglaze, Unglazed
2026, 13.5” x 7.5” , Media: Stoneware, Firing Process: Electric, Low-fire, Surface: Glazed, Non-ceramic, Unglazed
Photo credit: Andrew Castañeda
2026, 18” x 5” , Media: Stoneware, Firing Process: Electric, Mid-range, Surface: Glazed, Unglazed
Photo credit: Andrew Castañeda
2025, 10” x 7” x 2.5”, Media: Stoneware, Firing Process: Mid-range, Surface: Engobe / Slip / Underglaze, Unglazed
2026, 16 ” x 46”, Media: Stoneware, Firing Process: Electric, Mid-range, Surface: Glazed, Unglazed
Photo credit: Andrew Castañeda
2024, 20” x 11”, Media: Stoneware, Firing Process: Electric, Mid-range, Surface: Engobe / Slip / Underglaze, Non-ceramic, Unglazed
2026, 37” x 24” , Media: Stoneware, Firing Process: Electric, Low-fire, Surface: Glazed, Non-ceramic, Unglazed
Photo credit: Andrew Castañeda
2026, 12” x 8” x 6” & 16” x 6” x 8” , Media: Stoneware, Firing Process: Electric, Low-fire, Surface: Engobe / Slip / Underglaze, Glazed, Unglazed
The poem in this piece is Nima Yushij’s “Khaneam Abri Ast,” or “My House Is Cloudy”, a poem about deep existential despair, social stagnation, and the political oppression gripping Iranian society during his era. Photo credit: Andrew Castañeda
2026, 9” x 8 “ x 5”, Media: Stoneware, Firing Process: Electric, Low-fire, Mid-range, Surface: Glazed, Unglazed
Photo credit: Andrew Castañeda
Artist Statement
No matter where I stand, I always find myself drawn back to my culture. It lives within me; in the patterns I remember, the environments in which I have walked, and the symbols that still guide me. Before becoming an artist, I studied urban planning and learned how we carry the shape of space and symbols in our memory long after we have, or a place has, physically changed.
Every detail, every line, every texture is an act of remembrance and care. Symbols are never just decorations, they are carriers of identity that hold personal, cultural, and collective stories that resist erasure. I honor what survives, what adapts, and what endures.
My background in urban planning continues to shape how I think about space. My sculptures, intimate in scale, invite viewers to move around them and notice the balance between structure and fragility, presence and absence. In dialogue between form and space, I explore how memories take shape in the world.
For me clay is a language of the hands, a quiet resistance. It carries the politics of labor, material and value, transforming what has been seen as craft into a powerful act of creation. Ultimately, my practice is a weaving of time. Through clay and texture, memory and form, I bring ancestral stories forward, reshaping them with my own voice. Each piece becomes a space for reflection and connection, where the past and present meet, and where personal memory becomes a shared language of belonging.
Bio
Born and raised in Kerman, Iran, Betsa started her artistic journey in the 2010’s as an illustrator, gradually discovering her passion for ceramics, which is now her primary practice. As an artist, her work draws inspiration from her surroundings, emotions, and Iran’s cultural and traditional heritage. Betsa received her Bachelor’s degree in Urban Planning in Iran and has earned her Master of Fine Arts degree from Penn State.