Sara Truman

Artist Statement

My current investigations in clay are a direct relation to my own daily rituals. A handmade mug for coffee in the morning, a tumbler for water throughout the day, and a voluminous tea bowl for tea in the evening. As a vessel maker these utilitarian objects keep me excitedly making to find my next favorite one in a series. I believe the more voluptuous the form the better for both containment and consumption. I create these larger forms to give me a grander surface to address with my surface decoration. These blank canvases lined up on my table beacon to be attended. Inspired by abstract expressionist paintings of the 1950’s and 60’s I lay my colors out in front of me working intuitively across several pieces at a time. Using underglazes as paint I layer washes of color to build a history of mark making on the surface. After several of these layers are built I use a scrafitto tool to carve back through the slip and reveal small lines of the dark clay body. After glazing I brush each one with a thin coat of lithium wash in certain areas to reveal more through the layers of slip and underglaze. When finished I send them out into the world for someone else’s daily ritual to experience.

-- Sara Truman

Bio

Sara Truman is a ceramic artist and educator living in Gainesville, FL. She graduated in 2007 from Western Kentucky University with a BFA in Ceramics and Painting. She attended the University of Florida as a post-baccalaureate student in 2008, where she met her wife Naomi, and received my MFA from the University of Mississippi in 2012. She has been a resident artist at the Odyssey Center for Ceramics Art in Asheville, NC and LUX Center for the Arts in Lincoln, NE. After teaching at Doane College in Lincoln, NE and a one-year sabbatical replacement at Florida Gulf Coast University in Fort Myers, FL, she followed Naomi back to Gainesville, FL where she is currently the Department Chair of Visual and Performing Arts and the Ceramics Instructor at Gainesville High School. She lives in Gainesville with Naomi, their adorable dog Sammie, a cat, some fish and 4 awesome chickens. In 2016, they started Studio T/M Pottery and Clay in the NE Industrial Park where they make their pottery and teach community ceramics classes. When she is not teaching or in her studio she enjoys spending time in the garden, day trip adventures to one of the beaches within driving distance, or biking on one of the many paved trails with Naomi!