Red Lodge Clay Center – Short-Term Resident (AIA) 2019
Posey Bacopoulos is a studio potter working in New York City.
She studied ceramics at several craft schools including Penland School of Craft and Anderson Ranch. She also was a post bac student for a semester at the University of Florida in Gainesville.
Her work has been shown in numerous national juried and invitational exhibitions. She has won awards in the Strictly Functional Pottery National and the International Orton Cone Box Show. The work has been published in several books including Contemporary American Pottery, 100 Artists 1000 Cups and several Lark 500 Books. Her work and process has also been published in other books and articles.
She has taught numerous workshops on both thrown and altered forms and majolica decoration at such places as Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts, Penland School of Crafts and many community craft organizations. She enjoys both making and teaching.
In my work, it is my intention to create pots that enter people’s everyday lives in a direct and intimate way. My goal is to integrate form, function and surface in a manner that brings a sense of excitement to my work. I am continually exploring the relationship between surface decoration and form, while in the surface treatment of my work I use line, pattern and color to create the vibrant surfaces. The floral motifs on my pots are patterns rather than actual representations that serve to divide the space in interesting ways. I use gold decals as a contrast to my painterly surfaces.
The pots combine thrown, altered and hand-built sections. These sections are made separately and then assembled. I enjoy altering the thrown forms and working in this manner because it allows me to make pots of differing forms and shapes. Pots that are oval and square as well as round.
The pots are majolica on terra cotta. Majolica is a glaze tradition that began in the Middle East in the 9th century with a tin- opacified glaze. The majolica glaze is very smooth and white, which makes a good surface for decorating. The various colors are applied usually with a brush to the glazed surface to create the active patterns and decorations. The pots are then fired to cone 04 in an electric kiln. After the firing the glazed surface maintains both the line quality of the patterns and the colors of the decoration.
Finally, I love to make pots and I love to decorate and I combine these two loves in my work. My hope is that the pots invite use and that my pleasure in making them is shared by those who use them.