Ceramics Faculty

 

MARTHA GRIFFITH

I enjoy making things that are used in people's everyday activities. I also like to explore new forms which are non functional but bring a smile or sense of enjoyment to the owner. Ultimately, every thing is based on my love of clay a process of bringing it to its final state.

JAY WALSH

I am a teacher and ceramic artist. My primary focus is on classical forms and combined pieces which incorporate traditional oriental glazes. I am influenced by traditional Chinese and Japanese forms as well as the Arts and Crafts movement styles. My attempts are to use these forms and glazes in more non-traditional methods.

KEVIN FOY

Kevin started working with clay at Oakton Community College and he earned a B. A. in studio art concentrated in ceramics at Northeastern Illinois University in 1997. He worked as a production potter in Chicago for Stonington Gardens producing wheel thrown flowerpots and also worked at the Archie Bray Foundation in Helena Montana, Terra Incognito studio and gallery in Oak Park Illinois and Oakton Community College in Des Plaines Illinois. Kevin has taught ceramics classes at Lill Street Art Center, Terra Incognito and Northeastern Illinois University. His current body of work is wheel thrown altered vessels. Kevin uses a white stoneware clay body and generally uses high fire reduction glazes. He has also shown work nationally in juried exhibitions and is currently a M.F.A. candidate at Northern Illinois University.

MARY ANN NARVESON

Dedicated to the art of hand building techniques and the color cobalt blue, Mary Ann can be seen in the pottery studio creating anything from tiny angels to large fountain basins, three-headed dragons, cats dressed to the nines, and chickens with punk hair-do's. Students in her classes will receive instruction in the techniques necessary for successful construction of works large and small, serious or whimsical, as well as introduction to non-traditional glazes and patinas. Besides being an active member of The Fine Line, she is a member of the Clayworkers' Guild and the Fox Valley Arts Council. She has also enjoyed a long friendship with the Suburban Fine Arts Center in Highland Park, where she was fondly known as "the Witch Lady".

 

ALICE EAKIN

Alice creates unique hand-built and wheel-thrown functional pottery and whimsical ceramic sculptures. A native of western Pennsylvania, she lives and works in Bloomingdale, Illinois, and teaches ceramics at the Fine Line Creative Arts Center.

After earning her BFA in 1973 at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Alice exhibited and sold her pottery and sculpture in galleries and festivals in western Pennsylvania, managed an inner city ceramic arts center in Pittsburgh and was an active member of the Pennsylvania and Pittsburgh Guilds of Craftsmen.   In the early 1980s, her career turned to arts administration and later evolved away from the arts and into nonprofit management, consulting and fundraising.

Returning to her art in 2008, Alice continues to be heavily influenced by her childhood love of nature, animals and animation art – and her deep passion for clay.  She is a juried member of the Illinois Artisans Program of the Illinois State Museum - http://www.museum.state.il.us/programs/illinois-artisans/ - exhibiting work in several of the artisan galleries and shops within that program.   Her work may also be viewed on her website: http://www.eakinclayworks.com and purchased online through her shop at http://www.etsy.com/shop/eakinclayworks.

 

JOE CAMAIONI

Joe is an accomplished sculptor, whose career in the Chicago area has spanned more than 45 years in the art field. Mostly self-taught, he started learning about art growing up in Southern California. He found a new way to express himself when he discovered how easy and fun it was to form clay.

Joseph now concentrates his talents in the field of monumental and inspirational art and has been commissioned to do original designs of art work for churches and historical associations, hoping to create through his work, inspiration and enthusiasm for the subject, by those who view the art.

To start his sculpture Mr. Camaioni creates sketches first, then a clay model of the original design. He then creates the full size sculpture in earthen clay. The work can then be fired as is or a mold is made to reproduce the sculpture in bronze or other material. Joseph has created a line of smaller sculptures for the general public that are presented in his catalog and available for purchase.

 

ROGER MOY

Roger is a Southern California transplant with a background in traditional ceramics and master’s degree in fine arts. His growth as an artist has been one of subtraction. The first thing to go was traditional shapes, then traditional ceramic glazes and then clay itself. He was very interested in experimenting with surface treatments and began painting on found furniture.  After a few years the furniture disappeared leaving 2-D means of expression.

Roger has been painting on masonite for about 25 years and only recently reconnected with ceramics. He has a new interest in traditional shapes while his surface treatments remain somewhat experimental. Roger is very happy to share his experience, offer thoughts and learn from everyone and everything. Examples of Roger’s work can be seen at www.rhmoy.com.

 

JACK HOLT

Jack’s first experience with clay was at McHenry County College. After graduating from Northern Illinois University with a BFA in ceramics, he realized that helping fellow students understand and apply concepts was one of the most enjoyable pieces of his education. Teaching for him is a simple extension of that. Jack’s body of work currently deals with the thrown and altered vessel (as a metaphor for the human body) and the way line is skewed when subject to a 3-dimensional surface. He has a strong background in wheel throwing, and acknowledges it as his strength, but pursues all available methods for the creation of clay artwork. Students will find that Jack is friendly, patient, and truly interested in sharing his knowledge with his students.