It’s been a banner month for Cindy Biles, program administrator for the Elon Enterprise Academy in the Love School of Business.
The November-December issue of Clay Times, The Journal of Ceramic Trends and Techniques, included a photograph of one of her pots in a section called “The Gallery.” “Millennia” is the first in a series of round-bottomed ceramic vessels that were inspired by studies of the artists of Mata Ortiz, Mexico and Indians of the American Southwest. Biles hand builds and carves her pots, then fires them in the absence of oxygen to blacken their surfaces. “I continue to be astounded by the quality of work published in ‘The Gallery,’” she said, “It’s an honor to have my work appear in such fine company.”
A technique Biles devised to solve the challenge of working on a large vessel was published in the November issue of Ceramics Monthly. In order to safely support the 35-pound pot so she could work on it from all angles, Biles went to a tire store and purchased an inner tube for an all-terrain vehicle. It worked beautifully, but prompted the creation of a new series of self-supporting pots she calls “Evolution: Pots with Feet.”
This follows on the heels of notification that she received a Central Piedmont Regional Artists Hub Grant from the United Arts Council of Greensboro. Funds will be used for the presentation and promotion of work she completes in the next year.
Biles has always been interested in art, but “didn’t get serious about it until I enrolled in Ceramics I at Elon. I am so grateful to Professor of Art Mike Sanford for allowing me to take his course as a non-traditional student. You never know when you’ll embark on a life-changing experience, and this was a big one for me.” Currently, two of her sculptural vessels are on exhibit at the North Carolina Pottery Center in Seagrove, N.C.