Cheryl Mackey Smith

Cheryl's her hand-formed ceramics speak directly to her love of the natural world, each piece of handcrafted clay depicting nature as both real and abstract. Her knowledge of composition and feel for nature's randomness develop into finished framed fine art ceramic wall pieces on archival backings. Cheryl and her husband, Randall, an abstract painter, live in the Smoky Mountains where she continues the hunt, that began in childhood, for the rocks, twigs and patterns in nature that inspire her art. You can find her work at indoor and outdoor art festivals across the country and at the Grovewood Gallery at the Grove Park Inn in Asheville. Cheryl was recently accepted into the Southern Highland Craft Guild, and her work will be displayed at the Folk Art Center along the Blue Ridge Parkway in Asheville, NC.

From the time she could walk, Cheryl loved to explore the trails and streams near her childhood home outside Schenectady. With her older brothers, she roamed the woods and collected rocks, twigs, and anything that caught her eye. Her childhood collection was catalogued in cardboard egg cartons on shelves in her closet! Today her hand-formed ceramics speak directly to her life-long love of the natural world. Each and every piece of clay is carefully handcrafted to depict nature as both real and abstract. Her knowledge of composition and feel for the random develops into finished framed fine art ceramic wall pieces on archival backings. Cheryl and her husband Randall, an abstract painter, recently moved to the mountains of Western North Carolina where she has resumed her hunt for the patterns in nature that inspire her ceramics. You can find her work at indoor and outdoor art festivals across the country and at the Grovewood Gallery at the Grove Park Inn in Asheville.

At the start of my art career, I created stylized, graphic watercolor paintings depicting mountain and marsh scenes that would eventually be sliced into tiny shapes. I twisted, rolled and folded the individual pieces, then arranged them in various patterns inside shadowbox frames. Over time, I continued to explore this process with different mediums.While working with a variety of clays, I discovered the viscosity of porcelain was most adaptable to my minimalistic designs while focusing on texture and shape. I am able to create additional depth and richness through a process called ‘pit-firing', where the individual pieces are first kiln fired, then cooled and re-fired in a pit in the ground using leaves, sticks and twigs from the surrounding area. Each work is created by compiling many smaller elements, each delicately sculpted in a peaceful and orderly manner. I feel the viewer attracted to my work relates freely to the zen-like quality that transpires.