Shelley Schreiber

I’ve been drawn to detail throughout my life. One of my high-school art teachers had me work on a large-scale drawing of a pitcher plant out of tiny colored ink dots – it took me a year after I graduated to finish it. When my niece was very young and wasn’t even talking yet, we went to a playground, she stopped and pointed out where a nail was sticking up out of the wood on a platform leading up to the slide. I thought: she sees like I do!

I am passionate about exploring beauty through clay and being sensitive to subtle detail. Clay humbles me. I respect it. The material itself goes through so many stages to make it through to the end of the artistic process. It is transformational and vast, creating room for endless artistic and technical exploration.

I am an introvert. In that vein, a contemporary Japanese porcelain exhibit entitled “Quiet Clarity” caught my attention many years ago. The concept communicates what I strive to reveal through my own artwork - harmony between physical materials, critical thinking and inner contemplation. While I work, I think about intimacy, mastery, complexity, materiality, the images that pop into my head when I fall asleep and many times, hidden emotions. When I drink out of a cup I made or stan...