MEDIA CONTACT: Stacia Smith
561-297-2971, ssmith@fau.edu

FAU to Host Ceramics Workshops and Lecture

BOCA RATON, FL (October 29, 2004) - Florida Atlantic University's Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters presents ceramics artist Mary Barringer who will host two ceramics workshops and a ceramics lecture. The workshop demonstrations will be held Wednesday, November 3 from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and Thursday, November 4 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Both workshops will take place in the Visual Arts Building, Room 112 on FAU's Boca Raton campus, 777 Glades Road. The lecture will be held on Wednesday, November 3 from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. in the Social Sciences Building, Room 250 on FAU's Boca Raton campus. The workshops and lecture are free and open to the public.

Barringer uses a combination of coil and pinch-forming to create strong simple forms with richly textured surfaces which suggest artifacts of past civilizations. The rich surface textures have become a signature of Barringer's clay work. Some of these rhythmically repeated patterns are formed from the way she paddles the coils together as she forms the pieces. Barringer finishes her work with stains and glazes which are applied as light washes over the clay.

Barringer studied sculpture at Pratt Institute in New York and then transferred to Bennington College where she received her BA. She then established the Park Street Studio, a community studio in Hartford, Connecticut. Later, Barringer became the resident potter at the Farmington Valley Art Center in Avon, Connecticut. She has been a full-time studio artist since 1983 and now maintains a private studio in Shelburn Falls, Massachusetts.
This event is sponsored by the FAU's Potters' Guild and Student Government. The Potters' Guild is an educational and social group established to help promote and stimulate the development of the individual ceramic artist and enhance the education offered by the FAU Ceramic Department.

For further information, contact the Department of Visual Arts & Art History at 561-297-3870 or Scott Lammer at madfisch@hotmail.com

- FAU -