About Paula Smith

• LOCATED: Rock Hill, SC
• MATERIALS: White stoneware
• SURFACE: Various glazes
• PROCESS: Hand built, embellished, and assembled. Electric fired to cone 6.

Paula Smith's functional and sculptural ceramics are an extension of a creative life that extends well beyond her studio. For Paula, everything is a creative act. Throughout her career she has had a strong focus on sculptural, narrative work – telling stories through the use of female imagery, including the torso, the archetypal house form, and the vessel. She is also interested in the use of Milagros, or miracles in Spanish, and their symbolism. These ideas are incorporated into her functional pottery, along with more organic references such as wood, leaves, flowers and animals. Her interpretation of these elements is full of whimsy, often playful in a Dr. Seuss kind of way.

Paula received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Ceramics from the Kansas City Art Institute, and a Master of Fine Arts in Ceramics from the University of Illinois, Champaign/Urbana, IL. She currently lives in Rock Hill, South Carolina. She has been teaching art to college students for 39 years. She is a Professor of Visual Arts and the head of the ceramics program at Central Piedmont CC in Charlotte, North Carolina.