Winner of Staff’s Choice

Dara Hartman

BIOGRAPHY

Dara Hartman is a full time studio artist in Salt Lake City, UT and she is the Director of the Women Working With Clay Symposium at Hollins University in Roanoke, VA. She received a BFA from Virginia Tech and an MFA from Montana State University. In 2005, she was an Artist in Residence at the Archie Bray Foundation in Helena, Montana. She has taught at University of Wisconsin-Madison, Clark College in Vancouver, WA, and Oregon College of Art and Craft in Portland, OR. Dara’s career also includes a stint as a product designer and design team leader which led to traveling in China and working with factories on model design and production. In 2018, Dara was a Resident Artist at the Jingdezhen Ceramic Institute in Jingdezhen, China.

ARTIST STATEMENT

Growing up in a family of makers I was raised within a world surrounded by paints, pastels, clay, yarn, thread, and fabrics. The women in my life made things for the home blankets, quilts, clothes, and toys. A desire to make utilitarian objects was woven into my being. Clay was the medium that spoke to me. I fell in love with the intimate nature of utilitarian ceramics and how these pieces are a part of our everyday experience, from the formality of a place setting, to the personal experience of bringing a cup to one’s lips. My current body of work references these beautifully crafted objects that enveloped my youth from handmade toys and dolls to quilts made from my mother’s childhood clothing. Some of my earliest memories are of sitting with my grandmothers and learning to crochet, cross stitch, and sew. I learned craftsmanship and skills that were passed down through generations of women teaching women through a family tradition of gathering and making. Now, I want to honor these craftswomen and their traditions by learning about them, the objects they made, and the history of the techniques employed. I’m reinterpreting these articles as hanging quilts that reflects the patterns within patterns of traditional quilts. I want to recreate that memory of the delicate crochet lace blankets that have served as symbols for warmth, comfort, and love.

Website: www.darahartman.com
Instagram : @darahartmanceramics