Home : Summer Programs : TMVA : Artists' Statements

Hollinsummer Program
Hollins University
P.O. Box 9707
Roanoke, VA 24020-1707
(800) 456-9595
Fax: (540) 362-6218

 

Tinker Mountain Writers' Workshop
Hollins University
Christine Powell
P.O. Box 9552
Roanoke, VA 24020-1552
(540) 362-6229
Fax (540) 561-2325
cpowell@hollins.edu


Tinker Mountain Visual Arts
Hollins University
Dotty Weaver
P. O. Box 9552
Roanoke, VA 24020-1552
(540) 362-6021
Fax (540) 561-2325
dweaver@hollins.edu

 

Basketball Camp
Jim Phillips
Hollins University
P.O. Box 9553
Roanoke, VA 24020-1553
(540) 362-6424
jphillips@hollins.edu


Artists’ statements

 

Adrian Arleo Adrian Arleo
For over two decades I've been creating sculpture that combines human and animal imagery. Some works allude to a relationship between the human and animal realms. In others, human figures possess animal features in a way that reveals something hidden about the character or primal nature of the human. Generally, I’m not a "message artist" in the sense of making work that attempts to carry out a specific theme. For me every sculpture — even those in a related series—has its own individual, freestanding life. But when I finished my most recent body of work and looked for a feeling that encompassed it, I was struck by the concept of a harbinger: a dream, sign, or omen foreshadowing things to come. There is a quiet resistance, in this work, to the cultural and biological losses of our time. Many of the pieces reference Greek and Italian art that's been percolating from recent trips “home” to Europe. Classical imagery has always provided an innate vocabulary. By focusing on older, more mysterious ways of seeing the world, edges of consciousness and deeper levels of awareness suggest themselves.
Charity Davis-Woodard Charity Davis-Woodard
To express what I find moving and beautiful through the making of functional ceramics is a great privilege. The life of a potter demands something from all aspects of one’s being and is a wonderful dance of routine and experimentation, hard work and soulful searching. I am most interested in making pots that can be held in the hand and enjoyed visually and tactically, and every work session in the studio is an opportunity to explore new variations on familiar themes, keeping them fresh and recharged. I am deeply influenced by the environment I grew up in as well as by the natural world, architecture, functional objects of many types and historical decorative arts. Through my work I hope to contribute something to people’s lives that may help them pause and reflect on a bit of beauty or on a memory that brings pleasure during their daily routines or ritual celebrations.
Sandy Simon Sandy Simon
All of the things that go into making good food, go into making good pots—encompassing all of the senses. A “home cooked meal” describes what I want to achieve in my pots. It is a link to what is hearty, loved, comforting, and above all, genuine. Combining good food with a thoughtful pot is the act of a connoisseur.
Stacy Snyder

Stacy Snyder
Each pot seeks its own place. The place found where a cup sits on a saucer, within a family of bowls, the horizon and visual landscape created by a group of bottles, or on one’s own kitchen table. The boundaries of such places are both defined by and crossed by familiarity. We find comfort in what we understand and are intrigued by what we do not. Function plays roles in creating a sense of familiar that works to invite use and understanding. Coffee finds its way easily into a cup that is simple and comfortable. Within the relationships of the pots to one another a dynamic is built that clearly describes a map for where one pot should go; on the saucer, next to the similar form, in your hand. Familiarity can also be found in the landscapes that these series or sets of pots create that is similar to a group of buildings on a horizon.

 

 

Cheryl Ann Thomas Cheryl Ann Thomas
My work is an intimate and experiential inquiry into fragility and loss. I construct, I sabotage, I reconcile. I build carefully balanced columns by coiling tiny ropes of porcelain clay. They retain the imprint of my hand. These precarious columns are too tall and thin to withstand the heat of the kiln. They are compromised and collapse during the firing process. These kiln accidents are combined and reconstructed during further firings. The chance outcome determines the final form.