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HELLO! MY NAME IS HILLARY AND I LOVE CERAMICS. I was born, raised, and currently create in the wonderfully diverse and active city that is Austin, Texas. I went to art school at Texas State University where the science that is clay molding mystified me. Needless to say, I wasn’t much of a ceramic artist then. I could even say I hated it. Something about the technicality of what I understood about ceramic processes didn’t click with my free-flowing, creative brain. Fast forward a handful of years and I found myself needing a form of artistic expression, having already gone down the 2D route several ways. Clay had been in the back of my brain since art school because of how challenging it was. I was ready to try again, so I sought after a studio I could join and learn from. Fortune brought me to Austin Pottery (atxpottery.com) where I took a class and “POOF!” clay started making sense. I begun to hone my skills and develop my style. A year later, I am proud of how much I have been able to prove my younger self wrong. I even have a full time ‘day job’ working in a production pottery studio! Now a clay lover, I dare to call myself a ceramic artist and my style has become representative of my personality. At times I am all “Go, go, go!” and others I am “Chill, man.” I greatly enjoy days of throwing form after form on the wheel as well as on other days sitting still, carving the most intricate sgraffito patterns for hours at a time. #ScraffitoLife came to be when I discovered peace and joy in sgraffito carving during times of stress. Sgraffito (also often spelled scraffito) is a technique in which the artist applies an outer layer of slip or glaze to a form then carves through that layer, revealing the base color and creating a design. The level of detail in this form I find to be a bit of an analogy for life- It’s detailed, layered, and there’s so much to the story. Hosting classes gives the opportunity to share my experience with and enrich others' lives. Thank you for creating with me!
