Carol Townsend

Carol Townsend is a ceramic artist and the former chair of the design department at SUNY Buffalo State, where she is currently an associate professor teaching Design Foundations. Previously, she chaired the Art Department/Fine and Performing Arts Division at Daemen College and served as President of the Buffalo Society of Artists. Townsend received her M.F.A. from Ohio University in 1973.

Townsend’s affinity for capturing naturally occurring forms and textures is prevalent in her ceramic vessels, collages, and photographs. Townsend often incorporates textural fabrics, rough stitching and found organic elements in her collages, with focal points such as feathers and sea shells. Her ceramic work presents seemingly unpredictable bulbous forms with a sense of whimsy and joy. Sometimes snippets of Townsend’s original poetry are included in their surface design alongside complex textural carvings and vibrant earth tones. In more recent years, she has produced series of photographs that capture aesthetically pleasing colors and textures from the surfaces of corroding industrial structures and objects.

While much of Townsend’s career has been focused on the Western New York region, she has exhibited and taught workshops nationally and internationally. Her work is currently in the collections of the Burchfield Penney Art Center, Roswell Park Cancer Institute and Nazareth College, among others.