Sara Truman, Gainesville, Florida

Sara Truman’s cups, tumblers, flasks, plates, bowls, and bottles combine utilitarian forms designed for everyday use with a highly developed color palette of underglazes and slips applied like watercolor.

1 Platter, 13½ in. (34 cm) in diameter, earthen red clay, slips, underglaze, glaze, fired to cone 6 in an electric kiln, 2018.

2 Teabowl, 4¼ in. (11 cm) in height, earthen red clay, slips, underglaze, glaze, fired to cone 6 in an electric kiln, 2018.

Inspiration from mid-20th century Abstract Expressionist paintings is visible in the immediacy of color application and non-representational, fluid compositions. It is also evoked by the use of lithium wash applied selectively over the glaze to encourage additional fluxing and movement of colors and lines during the firing. These action-oriented surfaces are engagingly paired with clean-lined, simple forms.

Truman’s process involves making several vessels or plates, lining them up on a work table, and then developing different surface compositions on many pieces at once using multiple slips and underglazes. These are applied intuitively, with new layers responding to the existing brush strokes and swaths of color. Carving through the layered colors with a sgraffito tool reveals the clay below and creates line drawings that divide and delineate surface, emphasize shapes rendered by the layered underglazes, and suggest foreground-background relationships among compositional elements.

www.saratruman.com
Instagram: @studiotmceramics
Facebook: @sara.truman

3 Whiskey flasks, 4¼ in. (11 cm) in height each, earthen red clay, slips, underglaze, glaze, fired to cone 6 in an electric kiln, 2018.