QUICK FACTS

How many years have you been working as a clay artist? My first clay work was a set of handbuilt hooks — it was for an installation of my fabric paintings. Ceramics felt right. The material ended up overtaking my previous practice, which had focused mostly on textile for about a decade. Now, for the past few 5 years, I’ve been working full time as an artist and instructor at a community clay studio.

What is your main clay body that you currently use? I usually grab Laguna 55, which is a great off-white stoneware.

What is the primary method you use for building your work? I’m a handbuilder!

What is your favorite studio tool? My favorite studio tool is what I call the ‘baby rib.’ This is my favorite Xiem stainless rib, the SSR1A.

Do you have any future clay wishes or dreams? I would love to be a Salad Days artist at Watershed. As a plate-making maniac, that residency is high up on my bucket list.

ARTIST STATEMENT

Corinna Cowles’ work — pockets, pillows, paintings, curtains, wallpaper, and drapes in addition to ceramic work — is inspired by clothing and decorative patterns, engaging the viewer with absurd dislocations and transformations. Identity, craft, sculpture, domesticity, and class all seep out from a porous, multi-material plane of grids, loops, and abstractions of the everyday.

BIOGRAPHY

BORN: Fountain Valley, California | USA

Corinna Cowles followed a traditional academic fine arts track, currently holding a BFA and MFA in painting and studio arts from Columbia College Chicago and the Tyler School of Art respectively. She is continuing her education through dialogue, self-determined projects, and skill exchange via teaching, a professional ceramics practice, and artist residencies, which include The Hambidge Center for the Creative Arts and Sciences, Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts, Women’s Studio Workshop, the Vermont Studio Center, New Harmony Clay Project, and the Archie Bray Foundation.