American
Born: Ketchikan, Alaska, U.S.
Carla Potter is a clay sculptor who was raised in Ketchikan, Alaska. She earned her BFA in Studio Ceramics at Humboldt State University in North California and has taught art extensively in her community and at the University of Alaska, Southeast.
Potter works with porcelain and high fire oxidation glass creating a surreal “wet, three-dimensional brocade that evokes the lavish costumes of can-can dancers or ladies of the night,” she wrote in 2004. She aims to represent “a landscape of excess and compulsive desire. Free of cultural restraint, everything is by turns lolling about fully exposed in the sun and rain or slipping into watery suspension.” She notes that “[t]hough the look and feel of my work is inspired by life in and around the edge of the sea, the subject matter is closely paired with my experience of culture. I love to combine the pokey, squishy surface of a sea cucumber with the dubious comfort and form of Victorian furniture. Haute couture with its dramatic forms and incredible variety is reflected by the flora and fauna of the land and sea. I am curious about the qualities that have become labeled masculine and feminine. Hard shells and soft underbellies[:] I have discovered my own through the course of squishing about in the clay.”
For more information on Carla Potter, visit http://www.carlampotter.com/index.htm.