Heartland Clay

Group Pottery exhibition featuring Pamela Daly, Neal Hazelton, Peter Scherr and Anna Stoysich

Opening reception, Friday, Nov. 13, 5:30 – 8 p.m.

Pamela Daly

I was raised in multiple rural and seaside locations providing me with a wide-ranging palette of references in my clay art.  Many forms are large wheel-thrown vessels with sculptured animals on the lids. Others are totems with clay cylinders portraying various cultures’ nature scenes and spiritual symbols.  With all its vibrance and beauty, the sea is central to my connection with creativity. Wave forms can be found in the flow of my horse manes or the curl of my Irish ram’s horns.  I make cups for the sole purpose of incising surf swirls that the hand can feel when drinking.

A new challenge I am exploring is creating arrangements of clay objects that reference the growing social-political division in the U.S. and other countries.  My hope is to contribute my art to others’ efforts that stimulate conversation and understanding across the divide.

Neal Hazelton

“My work becomes a way of negotiating mortality and time; a function of existence within it. I create using force, movement and texture, allowing the work to hold evidence of its making.

Ceramics represents a deeply embedded passion for me, creating with permanence inspired by the forces that form our natural world; an alchemical forging of minerals by hand and fire.

One of my favorite aspects of working in clay is moving around in scale from large sculptural work, to miniature wheel-thrown forms. Look closely and you may discover chunks of raw minerals and authentic meteorites embedded into the surface, or cascading down the side; scars from molten flow of iron and mineral during the firing, delivering a primordial presence.

I create to be here;
I create to show that I was here;
I create because I am human.”

Peter Scherr
Bellevue, NE
Peter Scherr is a ceramic artist making pottery designed for use in the kitchen and the dining room. He uses a mid-range stoneware clay fired in an electric kiln using batch made and commercial glazes to decorate his work. His labors in ceramics have toured him around his home state of Nebraska since 1997, in different schools and studios, at Jun Kaneko Studio in Omaha, and earning his BFA at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, under the tutelage of Gail Kendall, Eddie Dominguez and Pete Pinnell. Since 2009, he’s created his work on the fringes of South Omaha, in a small backyard studio, while gardening, working and raising a family with his spouse Stacy.
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Artist Statement:
I make ceramics. Mostly functional pots formed on a wheel. Decorating and glazing are influenced by compositions I see in my garden; creeping vines, bits of soil, and trellis grids wild with overgrowth. Traditional forms and motifs found in Asian and British historical pots also influence my eye.

Surrounded in my childhood by slow sandy rivers, hillside blowouts, and a Victorian home that was always a ‘work in progress’ made me continually who I am; curious about material, looking deeply at surfaces, and building my life as an artist making ceramics inviting us to gather.

Anna Stoysich

Anna Stoysich is a multidisciplinary artist based in the Loess Hills along the Nebraska–Iowa border in Malvern, Iowa. Born and raised in Omaha, Anna received her BFA with honors from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. Her work celebrates the wildlife and wilderness of the Tallgrass Prairie, in which she works to show the region’s abundant biodiversity.

Anna works across painting, drawing, murals, and ceramics, often blending these approaches to explore land‑based storytelling. Her art career includes significant milestones such as an artist residency at the Archie Bray Foundation, a nationally recognized center for ceramic excellence, and being juried into the first Taiwan Ceramics Biennial, an international exhibition highlighting innovative ceramic practices. Her public‑facing community engaged projects include The Celebration of the Wetlands, a collaborative tile installation, and multisensory gatherings like The HeARTwood Dinner, a farm‑to‑table experience shaped by handmade pottery, which brought together artists, poets, chefs, and musicians.

Encouraging others to connect with nature and culture through the arts, Anna offers murals, custom artwork, commissions, tile installations, workshops, private classes, and facilitation of community‑engaged art projects. You can learn more about her at
https://annastoysich.com

ARTIST STATEMENT

As a multidisciplinary place‑based artist, I primarily work in painting, drawing, murals and ceramics to adorn walls and tables with illustrated objects rooted in the whimsical ecological storytelling of the Tallgrass Prairie. The physicality of materials becomes a tactile way to acknowledge and transform the embodied grief of living in one of the most altered landscapes of the world into playful expression and the restoration of absent narratives.

My artwork focuses on cultivating relationships and cultures of care between people and the more‑than‑human world. My work proposes to expand the imaginative capacities we rely on to address our shared challenges and to inspire the reacquainting of ourselves with nature.