By Kara Dietrich
Staff Writer

A trained painter and self-proclaimed “real”-job-holding woman by day, Maine artist Susan Dewsnap visited Bates last week. Although she showed a few pieces of her two dimensional work, her slide show presentation to a crowd of primarily art students in Olin last Thursday focused on her real artistic passion: pottery. She showed a wide array of her creations and spoke about the transformation of her style over the years.

Dewsnap studied painting as an undergraduate at the University of New Hampshire. It wasn’t until moving out west with her boyfriend after graduation that she took her first pottery class at a converted fire house in Boulder, Colorado. Pottery may not have been on her radar screen since day one, but objects definitely were.

“I was always drawn to objects you could hold in your hand,” she said. She frequented yard sales and flea markets searching for the perfect objects to paint. Since patterns and objects were centrally important to Dewsnap’s work long before her hands first took to the wheel, it’s not surprising that once she began making objects instead of just looking for them, she fell in love.

At first, she was interested in functionality and Asian designs. Using a clay firing method called raku, she made many intriguing pieces, including a large bookcase. From there, she experimented with smaller, yet still functional, pieces like bowls and dishes.

Dewsnap said that as her style evolved, she became increasingly interested in the labor-intensive part of making pottery. She would spend much time crafting handles and spouts and other interesting adornments. Her fascination with ceramics never waned, and so Dewsnap continued making pottery and attending classes, including the well-known Haystack workshop.

Although she has now been making pottery for 15 years, she says her creativity has no bounds. “I don’t know my limitation,” she said. “There are always a million things I could do.” Whether it’s creating a new design or perfecting a new technique, her hands are never without direction at the wheel. She still loves functionality and makes many everyday items like cream and sugar dishes and boxes with lids. “In every pot some language from another pot comes through and inspires me to go new places.”

Dewsnap teaches ceramics, earthenware, and stoneware programs in the adult continuing education at the Maine College of Art in Portland. She holds her “real” job 4 days a week and spends the other 3 days in her studio making her own pottery. Dewsnap visited Bates as a Mellon Learning Associate. Associates come for up to a week to share their knowledge and enthusiasm for their work with students in the humanities. She spent time with pottery students in the studio before her slide show presentation. Contact Sallie Hackett (shackett@bates.edu), the Olin area coordinator, for information about upcoming Mellon associates.







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