About Samantha Henneke

Samantha Henneke - Insect Plate

Samantha Henneke's Art Statement

Making pottery in the studio is an orchestration of designing the shape, decorating the form, applying the glaze to accentuate its surface and firing the glazed pottery piece to maturity. The daily process of working with clay is a gratifying experience for me.  I want my functional work to be beautiful and comfortable to use. 
I primarily work with smooth textured clays, such as porcelain or light colored stoneware, for the brilliant color response glazes have when applied and fired onto white or light toned surfaces.   I enjoy decorating the surface of the pots I make, and many times I will design the clay forms for particular glazing techniques.  My approach to surface decoration varies depending on my choice of glazes, the type of firing, and my current mood.  Sometimes I like to decorate the piece with a simple swirl and other times the plate becomes a canvas for an insect image or a dotted pattern which can show how tight patterning can affect ones vision, creating an op-art effect of movement and vibration. I am fascinated with macro photography and exploring my garden collecting images of insects in their environments.  I utilize this activity to capture stories among the foliage, to create colorful compositions, and patterns to form a snapshot in time and imagination. 


Samantha Henneke's Bio

Samantha Henneke is a full-time studio potter living in Seagrove, North Carolina with her husband Bruce Gholson.  Together they work in the clay studio and operate an open pottery sales shop for the public called Bulldog Pottery. Samantha Henneke grew up in Blacksburg, Virginia and attended her home-town college, Virginia Tech. While searching the halls for her place in life she finally found it her junior year while taking a pottery class, in the spring of 1991.  After completing one more year at Virginia Tech she transferred to the New York State College of Ceramics in Alfred in the fall of 1992 and graduated cum laude with a Bachelors of Fine Arts in Ceramics in 1995. Her studio art pottery aesthetics are traditional with a flare - a dotted mug, an insect on a plate, or swirl on a covered jar.  Samantha also enjoys creating fantasy garden landscapes depicting life in the garden. She composes crystalline glazed paintings on porcelain canvases of scenes such as a red dressed girl working with a dung beetle, a larger then life red-eye fly portrait, or girl skipping through a garden of flowering shoes. She participates in exhibitions throughout the year, has appeared in a number of publications, and has ceramic work in national museums such as the Mobile Museum of Art in Alabama, Mint Museum Randolph in Charlotte, and the Gregg Museum in Raleigh. 



Ant and Girl in Lavender Dress Porcelain Glaze Painting

Samantha Henneke - Girls with Red Caterpillar Porcelain Glaze Painting


Samantha Henneke Dotted Covered Jar


Samantha Henneke Butterfly Vase

Samantha Henneke - Yunomi

Samantha Henneke -  Bowls

Samantha Henneke - Pitchers

No comments: