Red Lodge Clay Center – Short-Term Resident (AIA) 2026
Dawn Dishaw received her BFA from the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University in 2003. After graduating Dawn was an associate volunteer at The Clay Studio in Philadelphia. She has exhibited her work been at ceramic galleries across the country including The Clay Studio in Philadelphia, Clay AKAR in Iowa City, the Archie Bray in Helena, Plough Gallery in Tifton, Georgia and Vessel in Saratoga Springs, New York. She was one of Ceramic Monthly’s Emerging Artists in 2014. Dawn has presented demonstrations of her work and taught children’s classes at various studios including Wesleyan Potters, Saratoga Clay Arts and the University of Iowa. She has taught, intro to hand building and the wheel at Skidmore College. Dawn was a resident at Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts in 2024. She currently lives and works north of Albany in Mechanicville, NY with her husband, Michael Van Winkle. In 2025 they opened Paper City Clay in Mechanicville, NY where she teaches ceramics to children and adults.
Using clay as a traditional material to express form and function, I want my work to capture that sensuality between the maker and the clay. I am attracted to the way clay passes through the hands of the maker, making it seem effortless, as if it were moving on its own. My current body of work explores how pattern and image move over the form. It is important for the pieces to be dynamic: to stand out in a world full of everyday objects but to also invite familiarity and intimate use. At first the drawings were an answer to a question. “How do I activate the surface, to make these understated yet elegant forms seem less static?” Inevitably more questions follow. “What if I start a flower here, make it radiate lines in this direction? Where do the leaves start and end? How does color help the eye travel around and through the piece?” With the answer to each of these formal questions, visual meanings arise. Through the varying character of a hand drawn line, repetition of shapes and the relationship between colors playing across the comfortable forms the work becomes about detail, sensitivity and movement.