@darahartmanceramics
darahartman.com

DARA HARTMAN

BIOGRAPHY
Dara Hartman is a full time studio artist in Salt Lake City, UT. She also serves as 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
My ceramic sculptures and pottery reference the patterns found in the handmade quilts, toys, and clothes that I grew up with that were made by my grandmothers. It wasn’t until I was photographing one of my large scale dinnerware sets from above that I could see I was making the parts of a quilt and didn’t even realize it. The combination of patterns and colors came together like a treasured heirloom. This moment sparked an idea to research the craftswomen in my family, the objects they made, and the stories they told. This has led to a parallel series of ceramic hanging sculptures and functional pots that reference the objects my grandmothers made.