3-Dimensional Design in Ceramics
Glenda Guion, Instructor
E-mail: Glenda Guion
Glenda Guion - 3-D Ceramics: B.F.A. 1985 Middle Tennessee State University / M.F.A. 1987 Clemson University.
Glenda Guion has served as instructor at the Greenville Museum of Art, Clemson University, and Webb School in Tennessee. She has worked as a studio assistant and as art director for Emery’s Fine Arts Gallery in Tennessee. Her teaching experience also includes slide lectures and workshops at Furman University, Greenville County Museum, Clemson University, Tri County Technical College and at 13 different Greenville County Schools. She has been chairperson for Greenville Open Studios since 2004 and has participated in the event every year since it began in 2002.
Ms. Guion’s cay work is included in numerous public collections such as the South Carolina State Art Collection, the Pickens County Museum, Columbia College, Clemson University, Sumter County Museum of Art, and Middle Tennessee State University. She has received 13 first place awards, and has been exhibited in over 100 regional shows, 19 national juried exhibitions, and 10 solo exhibitions. Her clay work has been exhibited in venues such as: Hickory Museum of Art, Hickory, NC; Galleria Mesa, Mesa, Arizona; Danforth Gallery, Portland, Maine; The Holter Museum of Art, Helena, Montana; Eastern Washington University, Spokane, Washington; The University of Memphis, Memphis, Tennessee; Southern Utah University, Cedar City, Utah; Gallery of Artifacts and Treasures, Daytona Beach, Florida; Capital University, Columbus, Ohio; and The Museum of Modern Art, Miami, Florida.
Two reproductions of her clay sculpture have been included in the book Handbuilt Ceramics by Kathy Tripplett published by Altamont Press in 1997; three works are published in 500 Teapots, by Lark Books (Fall 2002). In 2004 she wrote and sold an article to Pottery Making Illustrated Magazine, a publication of The American Ceramic Society, titled “Making an Ocean of Clay” (July/August 2004 issue). The article features a special project designed and created by Fine Arts Center clay students for the Children’s Wing of the Greenville Memorial Hospital.
NEWS
Fine Arts clay teacher Glenda Guion was selected to receive a $4,800 Fellowship from the Surdna Arts Teachers Fellowship Program. The Fine Arts Center, where Ms. Guion has taught for twenty years, also has been awarded a complementary grant of $1,500 to support post-fellowship activities in the school.
This summer Ms. Guion traveled to New Mexico and spent eight days driving over 1300 miles visiting Native American pueblos and Mesa Verde to study the culture and pottery styles. She then spent a second week taking a traditional Native pottery workshop in Taos, NM with Emma and Deloris Lewis, the daughters of Native American potter Lucy Lewis. The workshop involved making small pottery from clay dug from an ancient cave on the Acoma reservation. The pieces were formed using the tradition of pinching the clay; no tools other than the artist’s hand and a rib made from a gourd were used. After the pots were dry they were burnished and designs were then painted with a brush made from chewing a blade of yucca. The paints were made from grinding rocks found on the reservation with a mixture of boiled wild spinach. After the pots were completed and dried they were fired outdoors in traditional dung firing.
“I was very honored to have been awarded this Fellowship. It allowed me to plan my own area of study and to explore a part of our country that interests me for both the pottery and the Native American culture. This experience will help me continue to inspire arts students in the Greenville area,” said Mr. Guion.
The Surdna Arts Teachers Fellowship Program (SATF), a venture of the Surdna Foundation’s Arts Program, announced the Fellowship recipients for the eighth round of its national awards in June. Sixteen outstanding teachers representing 14 specialized public arts high schools from around the country were selected from an initial pool of 57 applicants. The teachers excel in a broad spectrum of visual, performing, and literary arts.
Award recipients were evaluated by a peer review panel based on demonstrated excellence both as artists and teachers. All permanently assigned, full- and part-time arts faculty in specialized, public arts high schools were eligible to submit applications.
“We’re thrilled to be able to offer these Fellowships to teachers of the arts. By focusing on their own creative work and interacting with professional artists and colleagues, these teachers are exposed to new ideas and practices that they can carry back to the classroom. After eight rounds of Fellowships—and 160 Fellows—we’ve witnessed the transformative effect of the Fellowship experience on both the individuals and the schools,” said Ellen B. Rudolph, Program Director for Arts, Surdna Foundation.
About the Surdna Foundation
The Surdna Foundation, a national family foundation established in 1917, helps support organizations in five program areas: Environment, Community Revitalization, Effective Citizenry, the Nonprofit Sector, and Arts. Additional information can be found on the Foundation’s website at: www.surdna.org.
The Surdna Foundation’s Arts program aims, in various ways, to strengthen the artistic abilities of teens. The goal of the Surdna Arts Teachers Fellowship Program is to support the artistic revitalization of their arts teachers. Surdna’s goal is to help them increase their effectiveness as they guide and train young people for careers or advanced study.