Five ceramic artists were named winners of the Archie Bray Foundation's annual fellowship awards. Selected from a highly competitive field of candidates, the Lilian Fellowship was awarded to Donna Flanery, of Minneapolis, Minnesota; the Lincoln Fellowship went to Birdie Boone, of Abingdon, Virginia; Kevin Snipes of Cleveland, Ohio received the Taunt Fellowship, and David Peters of Amarillo, Texas received the Matsutani Fellowship. Nathan Craven, of Ogden, Utah is the first recipient of the newly established MJD Fellowship.

Each fellowship awards $5,000 and a one-year residency at the Foundation to artists of exceptional accomplishment and promise. Beneficiaries are expected to embrace the Bray experience of community and exchange, and have the opportunity to focus their attention towards producing and exhibiting a significant body of work. Artists Eric VanEimeren and Adrian Arleo joined Bray Resident Artist Director Steven Young Lee in selecting this years award winners.

Click here to view 2008-2009 Fellowship Monograph written by Forrest Snyder.

Donna Flanery received her BFA in 2005 at The University of Montana in Missoula, Montana. She was a 2006 Folgelberg Fellow at The Northern Clay Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where she also received a 2007 Jerome Emerging Artist Project Grant. Flanery’s earthenware pots feature narrative and painterly surfaces of animal friends and foes.

“I enjoy when my pots appeal to children,” Flanery says, “and I want to share an appreciation of cartoons and mark making with them. Ideologically, this silly approach to the serious business of my own artwork is of great value to me. I hope to infect others with a similar playful irreverence.”

Birdie Boone received her BA in studio fine art from the College of William and Mary in Virginia in 1994 and her MFA in ceramics from the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth in 2005. She has worked at Peter's Valley Craft Center, Watershed Center for Ceramics, Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts and the Worcester Center for Crafts. Boone has also taught ceramics at Emory & Henry College in Virginia, the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, and at the Worcester Center for Crafts in Massachusetts.

"My ceramic work is currently focused on the development of useful forms such as bowls, cups and serving vessels. With the idea of 'domestic intimacy' subtly revealed through physical traits such as soft, skin-like forms and glazes, these vessels become partners with their users in acts of physical and emotional nourishment. Occasionally, I utilize these pots to create assemblages that provide the viewer with an evocative scenario that leads beyond the realm of utility. Again through form and glaze, as well as assemblage, I am both investigating and presenting manifestations of ideas regarding living and eating alone and also with family or friends."

Kevin Snipes received his BFA in Ceramics from the Cleveland Institute of Art and his MFA from the University of Florida in 2003. Snipes has been living in Cleveland, Ohio, for the past couple of years where he has was a studio potter and an adjunct teacher of ceramics at the Cuyahoga Community College. Snipes has received multiple residencies and awards including the Individual Excellence Award from the Ohio Arts Council and residencies at Watershed Center for Ceramic Arts, the Clay Studio in Philadelphia and Worcester Center of Crafts.

Snipes states, “I like to think of my work as ‘sweet and spicy’; not too much of either, with a good dash of humor. There is an uncertain sense of edginess or mystery that offers the viewer just enough information, so that they can extrapolate his or her own stories.”

Kevin Snipes, Zigzag Box, 2007, 12"x13"x5"

Born and raised in Amarillo Texas, David Peters spent much of his childhood camping and exploring the rugged nature of the Southwest. There he became interested in Native American art, particularly in how spiritual beliefs were expressed in everyday objects. These interests lead him to China where he studied ceramics in Jingdezhen. Most recently he received his BFA from Utah State University in Logan where he researched the historical Korean and Japanese wares. His research of historical wares made by various indigenous cultures has inspired him to challenge himself to create his pottery exclusively from local materials.   

“It is my hope,” Peters says, “that my work facilitates the appreciation of a good meal, and marks the importance of time spent with others. The historical foundation of my work reminds us that these simple things are timeless, an essential part of what it means to be human.”