Meet Deborah Bedwell Ceramics
Artist Statement
I work in clay because I love the constant engagement with learning and trying to get life right. Clay is a teacher of exacting discipline and a close friend. It doesn’t care that I’ve moved my house, or that my shoulder aches, or that the pots I made 20 years ago look somewhat better or worse than the one I am are getting ready to cut from the wheel. Clay wants me to sit up, pay attention and get on with getting better. It is a life force and a metaphor. At once, it wants my success and doesn’t care whether I’m successful or not.
Clay imposes its will when I am with it. But if I choose to be apart, I lose that time, and clay doesn’t care that it is gone forever. It does let me continue to love it, and if I come back with focus and affection, it will play with me decently. It will give me a new kind or ardor or a different caress from the one I expected. I’ve simply got to be with it again and not stray. Relearn its nuanced behavior, and give it respect and a little passion.
In my current pots I am retrieving bits and pieces of my forever devotion to the material. The Grolleg porcelain is sensuous and responsive, and its whiteness begs for color. I am returning to clay with half a year gone. That time is lost, but our history is not forgotten. Clay doesn’t quite trust me yet; I have to prove my fidelity. I have moved it closer to me, into the center of the house, not away into the basement or garage. I see and touch it every day and spend more time working on trust. The work will grow. I’m learning and trying to get life right.
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Bio
Deborah Bedwell is the founding director (retired) and a trustee of Baltimore Clayworks. She is a functional potter, working in gas, electric and woodfired high temperature porcelain. Deborah consistently serves on juries and grant panels, gives workshops, lectures and curates visual art exhibitions; she has had three articles about individual artists published in Ceramics Art and Perception magazine. During her 32 year tenure as executive director at Baltimore Clayworks, Bedwell crafted numerous sustained collaborations with a range of partners to create opportunities in clay for artists, children and senior adults in underserved neighborhoods in inner city Baltimore. Her published article on evaluation of community arts programs, Measuring Joy, is used on the National Endowment for the Arts website. She has taught ceramics at all levels for 32 years.
In 2000, Deborah was one of three Americans invited to Taiwan to lecture on community involvement in the ceramic arts in conjunction with the opening of the Yingge Ceramics Museum in Taipei. She is a graduate of the Greater Baltimore Committee’s Leadership program and holds a bachelor’s degree from Berea College (KY), a master’s degree from Towson State University (MD), and studied arts management at U. Mass. Amherst. In 2001 and again in 2004, Bedwell was named one of Maryland's Top 100 Women by The Daily Record, a business and law publication. She was on-site liaison for the NCECA conference in Baltimore in 2005, and served on the NCECA Board as its president from 2012 - 2017. She moved from Baltimore to Frederick, MD in October 2021.
