2019, 24"H x 15"W x 8"L, Media: Stoneware, Firing Process: Wood fired, Surface: Engobe / Slip / Underglaze, Unglazed
Exhibited at NC Pottery Center Gala in 2019
2020, 13"W /piece, Media: Stoneware, Wild Clay/Raw Clay, Firing Process: Wood fired, Surface: Engobe / Slip / Underglaze, Unglazed
Exhibited at Kyoto Ceramics Center's "Clay Exhibition" in Kyoto, Japan in 2020
2019, 22"H x 14"W x 9"L, Media: Stoneware, Wild Clay/Raw Clay, Firing Process: Wood fired, Surface: Engobe / Slip / Underglaze, Glazed
2019, 24"H x 14"W x 8"L, Media: Stoneware, Wild Clay/Raw Clay, Firing Process: Wood fired, Surface: Engobe / Slip / Underglaze, Unglazed
Exhibited at NCECA2019 Pittsburgh Co-exhibition with Cub Creek Foundation for the Ceramic Arts Group Show
2019, 21"H x 16"W x 10"L, Media: Stoneware, Wild Clay/Raw Clay, Firing Process: Wood fired, Surface: Engobe / Slip / Underglaze, Unglazed
Exhibited at the Branch Museum of Architecture and Design, Richmond, VA with Cub Creek Foundation for the Ceramics Arts artists in June 2020
2018, 13"W, Media: Stoneware, Wild Clay/Raw Clay, Firing Process: Wood fired, Surface: Engobe / Slip / Underglaze, Unglazed
Exhibited at New Taipei City Yingge Ceramics Museum in Taiwan as a part of International Academy of Ceramics Members' Competition in 2018
2021, 11"W x 5"H, Media: Stoneware, Firing Process: Wood fired, Surface: Engobe / Slip / Underglaze, Glazed
Exhibited at the Red Lodge Clay Center "Fluid Expressions" in March 2021
2021, 5"H x 3"W /each, Media: Stoneware, Wild Clay/Raw Clay, Firing Process: Wood fired, Surface: Engobe / Slip / Underglaze, Glazed
2019, 6"W x 5"H, Media: Stoneware, Wild Clay/Raw Clay, Firing Process: Wood fired, Surface: Engobe / Slip / Underglaze, Glazed
Received a Special Honor Award at the First World Ceramic Teapot Art Competition in Yixing, China in 2019
2020, 5"H x 3"W (each), Media: Stoneware, Wild Clay/Raw Clay, Firing Process: Wood fired, Surface: Engobe / Slip / Underglaze, Glazed
Joined the Clay AKAR Yunomi Invitational in June 2020
Artist Statement
My ceramic works are made from wild, local clays in North Carolina and it’s really important for me to use materials from nature. Wood firing is also an important process to complete my work and it gives a sustainable energy into my work. It’s a very slow process to use wild clays and to work on wood firings, but I focus on every process and quality of my ceramic work.
I established my professional career in Shigaraki which is an old pottery village in Japan, and now I live in Seagrove, NC which is the biggest pottery community in the US. My clay path hasn’t been so easy but taking a long way gave me lots of lessons and opportunities in many places.
To me, pottery making is about materials, processes, tests and work ethics. Over 30 years of my experience in ceramics, I chose what I really like and feel joy, and I believe working on wild clays and wood firings make my works stronger and more resilient.
Bio
Hitomi Shibata is a Japanese native ceramic artist in Seagrove, North Carolina, USA. Has Ceramic art degrees (B.Ed & M.Ed in Fine Art and Craft) from Okayama University in Japan. She learned and worked as a potter in Shigaraki which is one of the oldest pottery villages in Japan. Rotary International scholarship brought her to the USA and became a special student at the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth, CVPA Ceramics in 2002. She moved to NC, USA in 2005, and set up her permanent pottery studio in Seagrove which is the biggest pottery town in the USA. She makes functional wood-fired pottery and sculptural ceramic work from NC wild clays, and fires wood kilns with her husband, Takuro Shibata. Artist in residence at Shigaraki Ceramic Cultural Park in Japan (1996-1997), Cub Creek Foundation for the Ceramic Arts in Appomattox, VA (2003), and North Carolina Pottery Center in Seagrove, NC (2005-2007). She led workshops at: Peters Valley School of Craft (2017), The Art League in Alexandria (2019) and Penland School of Crafts (2019). She was selected as a member of International Academy of Ceramics (IAC) in Geneva, Switzerland in 2017. She has many ceramic exhibitions and pottery shows in Japan, USA, China and UK.