Dawn Dishaw

Dawn wasn’t introduced to art and ceramics until late in high school but knew immediately that it was what she wanted to do. She went to Alfred University and received her BFA in 2003. At Alfred she used my first handmade bowl and have been using and making pots ever since. 

Dawn is attracted to brick buildings, tiled roofs and knit cloth. It was because of this interest in symmetry and the organization of like pieces that at school she found herself in the library revisiting books on Islamic tile and pottery, Persian painting and historical architecture. Dawn was connected to them on a very immediate level because of their sense of history and tradition as well as for the beauty of their rich colors and patterns.

Dawn's work is about function and pattern. Each piece is wheel thrown and glazed with
a variety of underglazes and then covered with a clear glaze. The patterns are hand drawn and therefore vary and are fluid. She create patterns and structure through the repetition of marks. Placing these dense patterns on small pieces makes them seem larger. It’s about bringing a small every-day object to the foreground.