Debra Fritts Workshop

Story Telling, Narrative Sculpture

This three day, hands-on sculpture workshop will explore the art of story telling, using narrative sculpture to explore important themes such as faith, family relationships, completeness, and inner workings. In this workshop, students will explore the figure in sculpture using a variety of handbuilding techniques with terra cotta clay. The head and the torso will be approached.

Debra's background as a painter reveals itself in the richly captivating surfaces she creates. Participants will learn her techniques for surface work in wet clay, including incising and impressing, mark-making, carving, appliqué, painting with slips, and use of dry clay. Editing and revising will be explored, as well as the use of symbol and metaphor.

Basic skills in handbuilding will be helpful. Participants should bring an inspirational or symbolic object to work from.

Debra Fritts Artist Statement

Looking at my work, I realize that I am a storyteller, but not in the usual sense. I build my stories in terra cotta clay , layering the surfaces with found object marks and fired colarants. These stories have no ending- nor do they contain answers to the questions they pose. They are inquistive, honest, and dwell on the mysteries and joys of daily living.

Each one of a kind sculpture is hand built, mainly using thick coils, then multiple fired. The pieces may be fired three to seven times depending on the color and surface that I'm trying to achieve. I approach the color on the clay as a painter. My palette is a combination of stains, glazes, oxides, slips, dry clays, underglazes and underglaze pencils. I mix- I paint, never exactly sure of the end results - another mystery. I enjoy the surprises!

Debra Fritts Resume

Professional Experience

1995 - Present, Director of Clay Program, Roswell Visual Arts Center, Roswell, GA

1975 - 1988, Art Teacher, White House High School, White House, TN

Recent Workshops

"Story Telling, Narrative Sculpture", Santa Fe Clay, Santa Fe, NM

"Narrative Figures in Clay", Arrowmont School, Gatlinburg, TN

"Figure in Clay", Hambidge Center, Rabun, GA

"The Figure in Clay", City of Orlando, Orlando, FL

"Expressing the Figure in Clay", Arrowmont School of Arts, Gatlinburg, TN

"Expressive Figurative Sculpture", Odyssey Center for the Ceramic Arts, Asheville, NC

"Form and Surface", Callanwolde Fine Arts Center, Atlanta, GA

"Handbuilding and Surface", Callanwolde Fine Arts Center, Atlanta, GA

"Surface Building in Clay", Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA

"Handbuilding in an Intuitive Way", Columbus State Univ., Columbus, GA

Select Awards & Exhibitions

2005

Two Person Show, Chase Gallery, Boston, MA

Group Show, Pacini Lubel, Seattle, WA

Group Show, Lowe Gallery, Atlanta, GA

"La Mesa", Santa Fe Clay, NCECA, Baltimore, MD

"Collection of Mr. Sandy Besser" The American Center for Wine, Food & the Arts, Napa, CA

"The Contemporary Cup", Lill Street, Chicago, IL

"Everybody", CERF's 20th Anniversary, SOFA, Chicago, Il

"Cups", Santa Fe Clay, Santa Fe, NM

"American Masters", Santa Fe Clay, Santa Fe, NM

"No Boundaries Exhibition", Fayetteville Museum of Art, Fayetteville, NC

"Hot Ice Tea", Blue Spiral Gallery, Ashville, NC

"Summer Faculty Show", Arrowmont School of Arts, Gatlinburg, TN

2004

Gallery Exhibition, Lowe Gallery, Atlanta, GA

"Little Things Mean a Lot", Swan Coach House Gallery, Atlanta, GA

"Our Cups Runneth Over", Society of Arts and Crafts, Boston, MA

"Cup", University of Miami, Coral Gables, FL

"Teapots: Object to Subject", Craft Alliance, Curator: Leslie Ferrin, St. Louis, MO

"9/11: Artists Respond", Durham Western Heritage Museum, Omaha, NE

"As I See Myself", Kentucky Museum of Arts and Design, Louisville, KY

"Portraits", Society of Arts and Crafts, Boston, MA

"For the Table", Santa Fe Clay Gallery, Santa Fe, NM

"Extravagant Imagination: Teapots", Hodges Taylor Gallery, Charlotte, NC

Two Person Exhibition, Blue Spiral Gallery, Asheville, NC

2003

"Out of Your Media", Invitational, Blue Spiral I, Asheville, NC

"Atlanta Biennial", Selected Artist, The Atlanta Contemporary Art Center, Atlanta, GA

"Summer Visiting Artists Exhibition", Odyssey Gallery, Asheville, NC

"Hundreds of Cups", Invitational, Santa Fe Clay, Santa Fe, NM

"With the Vessel in Mind", Eleven Eleven Sculpture Space, Washington, DC

"Small Sketches II", Swan Coach House Gallery, Atlanta, GA

2002

"International Infusion: Ceramic Teapots", Invited Artist, Sybaris Gallery, Royal Oak, MI

"The Anima in Art", Invited Artist, The Lowe Gallery, Atlanta, GA

"9-11: Artists Respond", Invited Artist, The American Craft Museum, New York, NY

"Figure It Out", Invited Artist, Blue Spiral 1, Asheville, NC

"Figurative Ceramic Sculpture", Solo exhibition, Bennett Gallery, Knoxville, TN

"The Body in Clay", Invited Artist, Craft Alliance, St. Louis, MO

"For The Birds", Invited Artist, Blue Spiral I, Asheville, NC

"Little Things Mean a Lot", Invited Artist, Swan Coach House Gallery, Atlanta, GA

"NCECA Clay Invitation", Blue Gallery, Kansas City, MO

Publications

Metropolitan Home, October 2005

Atlanta Magazine, April 2005

Ceramic Figures, Lark Books 2005

Atlanta Magazine, September 2004

American Style, December 2004

500 Figures, Lark Books, 2004

Setting Up Your Ceramic Studio, Virginia Scotchie, 2003

500 Teapots, Kathy Triplet, Lark Books, 2002

The Ceramic Glaze Book, Mark Burleson, Lark Books, 2001

Teapots Transformed, Leslie Ferrin, Guild Books, 2000

Making Ceramic Sculpture, Raul Acero, Lark Books 2000

Southern Living Idea House, 1997

Ceramics Monthly, September 1996

Education

1984 - 1995, Graduate Study: Penland School of Arts and Crafts, Penland, NC, and Arrowmont School of Arts, Gatlinburg, TN, studied Advanced Painting, Printmaking, Ceramic Sculpture

1971 - 1975, Undergraduate Study: Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, Bachelor of Science, Art Education