Susan Thayer (born 17 October 1957 in New York, NY) is an American ceramicist known for her intricately painted

porcelain Porcelain (), also called china, is a ceramic material made by heating Industrial mineral, raw materials, generally including kaolinite, in a kiln to temperatures between . The greater strength and translucence of porcelain, relative to oth ...

teapots. Inspired by her grandmother's china as well as by historical

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

an ceramics, she often combines traditional elements with other more contemporary designs in her work.Thayer, Susan. "Bulb Flowers - The Process", ''Ceramics: Art and Perception'', 1996. In order to maintain a high level of detail, Thayer must often fire each individual piece between ten and twenty times. She currently lives and works in

Portland, Oregon Portland ( ) is the List of cities in Oregon, most populous city in the U.S. state of Oregon, located in the Pacific Northwest region. Situated close to northwest Oregon at the confluence of the Willamette River, Willamette and Columbia River, ...

Education and career

Thayer graduated from the

Rhode Island School of Design The Rhode Island School of Design (RISD , pronounced "Riz-D") is a private art and design school in Providence, Rhode Island. The school was founded as a coeducational institution in 1877 by Helen Adelia Rowe Metcalf, who sought to increase th ...

in Providence, RI, in 1982 with a BFA in ceramics. After graduation, she remained in Providence and opened a porcelain production studio, though by 1986 she grew discouraged by "the limits imposed by the demands of production."Thayer, Susan. "Reaching to the Past", ''

Ceramics Monthly The American Ceramic Society (ACerS) is a nonprofit organization of professionals for the ceramics community, with a focus on scientific research, emerging technologies, and applications in which ceramic materials are an element. ACerS is located ...

'', April 1994. This discontent led her to begin creating one-of-a-kind pieces, drawing on originality rather than the uniformity of mass production. These pieces are often inspired by traditions such as the ceremony and grandeur of a dinner table in all of its propriety: set with dishes on placemats and with multiple spoons, forks, and knives designated for different courses. In addition to serving as an image of tradition, the dinner table—like the teapot—also suggests the notion of people coming together in a ritualistic setting."Greenwich House Pottery and SOFA NYC present SUSAN THAYER: 'China Painting - What You Don't See'", ''

Greenwich House Pottery Greenwich House Pottery is a non-profit pottery studio located in the West Village of New York City. History Greenwich House Pottery was founded in New York's Greenwich Village in 1909 as a part of the settlement movement, settlement house Gree ...

'', 2001. In conjunction with this classic imagery, her distinctive teapots are also inspired by change, which she perceives as "both desirable and inevitable." That sense of change manifests itself in her teapots as slight alterations of the original form: the perfect spouts start to lengthen or warp, or surface designs are rendered in glow-in-the-dark paint.

Work

Thayer's work is fluid in nature and intentionally "imperfect." She does not take on commissions, preferring to follow her own ideas. Thayer's pieces are in the permanent collection of the

Smithsonian American Art Museum The Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAAM; formerly the National Museum of American Art) is a museum in Washington, D.C., part of the Smithsonian Institution. Together with its branch museum, the Renwick Gallery, SAAM holds one of the world's lar ...

, the

De Young Museum The de Young Museum, formally the M. H. de Young Memorial Museum, is a fine arts museum located in San Francisco, California, named for early San Francisco newspaperman M. H. de Young. Located on the West Side (San Francisco), West Side of the ci ...

, the Museum of Contemporary Craft, the

Museum of Fine Arts Boston The Museum of Fine Arts (often abbreviated as MFA Boston or MFA) is an art museum in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the 20th-largest art museum in the world, measured by public gallery area. It contains 8,161 paintings and more than 450,000 work ...

, The

Racine Art Museum The Racine Art Museum (RAM) and RAM's Charles A. Wustum Museum of Fine Arts are located in Racine, Wisconsin, U.S. The museum holds the largest and most significant contemporary craft collection in North America, with more than 9,500 objects fro ...

, and in the

Newark Museum The Newark Museum of Art, formerly known as the Newark Museum, in Newark, New Jersey is the state's largest museum. It holds major collections of American art, decorative arts, contemporary art, and arts of Asia (including a large collection of T ...

. Her work was shown in 2003 in "The Artful Teapot" at the George R. Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Art and the

Long Beach Museum of Art The Long Beach Museum of Art is a museum located on Ocean Boulevard in the Bluff Park neighborhood of Long Beach, California, United States. The museum's permanent collection includes over 4,000 paintings, drawings, sculptures, works on paper, ...

, and in 1993, ''Feats of Clay V'', at Gladding, McBean & Company in

Lincoln, California Lincoln is a city in Placer County, California, United States, part of the Sacramento, California, Sacramento metropolitan area. Located north of Roseville, California, Roseville in an area of rapid suburban development, it grew 282 percent b ...

.Crane, Carolyn. "Feats of Clay", ''

'', April 1993.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Thayer, Susan 1957 births Living people Artists from Portland, Oregon American women ceramists Ceramists from Oregon Artists from New York City Rhode Island School of Design alumni 21st-century American women artists 21st-century American ceramists Ceramists from New York (state)