Being a potter is the giving and receiving of thanks. My pottery is about food presentation. It is made to bring foods to light. While function is a primary consideration, mood is of greater importance. I try to create atmosphere with my tableware. Considerations about mood or atmosphere contribute to the overall look and feel of my pieces. Ideas come easily, but meaning seems to come iimage of silvien layers over decades of time. It is meaning that gives strength to good ideas. I hope that my ideas have grown with my skills.

I am concerned with ritual as well. Rituals uncover the basic values, aims and attitudes of a people. I am half Sicilian and half Cajun, whose cultures are wrought with superstitions. Throw in a Catholic upbringing and I have rituals dancing all about me. Cooking has given me an avenue to explore and create my personal rituals. I began to cook when I was a teenager, and it has been a strong, sustaining interest in my life.

Currently I am interested in the notions of hospitality. Hospitality, which means to give and to receive. I view pottery as a vehicle of hospitality, because a pot gives and receives simultaneously; it is both host and guest.

I think about things like:

Food- which foods are chosen from those available; how they are prepared; with whom, and when they are eaten; and how much time is allotted to cooking and eating. Food is one of the means by which society creates itself, and acts out its aims and functions.

How do I, as a maker of tableware, direct the theater of dining? This is where I believe I have some ability to give something to society. Here I become the host and the guest. By thinking about foods as identity, as our physical selves, as a way of thought, as sex, as power, as friendship, as a medium of magic and witchcraft, as our time controller, I see food as the root culture: that which gives meaning to our lives.

I hope my ideas about dining will shape and dramatize the rituals surrounding food. I want my tableware to embody the unspoken assumptions of my heritage and culture.


-- Silive Granatelli, 2007

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Resume

Education

1971   BFA, Kansas City Art Institute
1975   MFA, Montana State University


Professional Experience

1982-present   Studio Potter, Floyd, VA
1987-99          Adjunct Professor Instructor, Virginia Tech., Blacksburg, VA
1982-83          Instructor of Ceramics & Director of Ceramics Apprenticeship Program, Berea College,                      Berea, KY
1979-82          Resident Potter, Berea College, Berea, KY
1976-79          Studio Potter, Athens, GA
1975               Instructor of Ceramics, Extension Program, Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, IL
1975               Instructor of Ceramics, Extension Program, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL


Grants

1995   Virginia Museum Fellowship


Collections

In the Collections of...
The Minneapolis Institute of Arts, MN
Mint Museum, Charlotte, NC
Museum of Ceramic Art, Alfred University, Alfred, NY
Art Museum of Western Virginia, Roanoke, VA


Workshops

2012 Porcelain Tableware and More at Idyllwild Arts, Idyllwild, CA                                                2012 Workshop with Silvie Granatelli and Bill Van Guilder, Charlotte, NC                                     2011 Women Working with Clay Symposium, Hollins University, Roanoke, VA                             2008 City of Orlando Families, Parks, and Recreation Department
2008 Red Lodge Clay Center Red Lodge, MT
2007 North Country Studio Workshop, Bennington College, Bennington, VT
2007 Shakerag Workshop, Sewanee, TN
2007 Arrowmont School for Crafts, Gatlinburg, TN
2007 La Meridiana, Certaldo, Italy
2006 Jacksonville Center for the Arts, w/ Ellen Shankin, Floyd, VA
2006 MudFire Pottery Center, Atlanta, GA
2006 Pocosin Arts, Columbia, NC
2006 "Pottery and the Foods of France", Cordes sur Ciel, France
2006 Mudfire Clayworks and Pottery Center, Decatur, GA
2005 Hambage Center, GA
2005 Julie Olson Workshop, Cary, NC
2005 Presenter at NCECA Conference, Baltimore, MD
2005 "The Italian Table" Workshop, La Meridiaba, Italy
2004 Lee Art Center, Arlington, VA
2004 Watershed Workshop, Conference on the Business of Crafts
2004 Old Church Cultural Center, Demerest, NJ
2004 Anderson Ranch, Snowmass, CO
2004 Carolina Clay Workshop, Greensboro, NC
2004 Terra Incognito Workshop, Chicago, IL
2003 Penland School for Crafts, Penland, NC
2003 Worcester Center for Crafts, Worcester, MA
2003 St Louis Community College, St Louis, MO
2002 University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE
2002 Archie Bray Foundation for the Ceramic Arts, Helena, MT
2002 Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts, Gatlinburg, TN
2001 Wichita State University, KS
2001 Sertoma Art Center, Raleigh92nd Street Y, New York, NY


Publications

2008   “The Potter’s Life: Deeply Invested,” Ceramics Monthly, June/July/August
2007   “Sharing My Studio,” The Studio Potter, Winter 2007-08
2007   NCECA Demonstration Artist Series DVD
2007   Lark Books: Ceramic Surface Design, Maureen E. Mills.
2007   Lark Books: The Masters: Porcelain. Richard Burkett
2007   Lark Books: 500 Animals in Clay
2006   The Reach of 16 Hands”, March 2006 Ceramics Monthly
1990   University of Tennessee, Clay Times, December, Excerpts from a workshop


Exhibitions

2012 "30x5: The Desert" AKAR, Iowa City, IA

2012 "Utilitarian Clay VI: Celebrate the Object" Arrowmont School of Arts & Crafts Gatlinburg, TN

2012 "Art of the Cup: Functional Comfort" Ogden Museum, New Orleans, LA

2012 "Utilitarian Clay VI: Celebrate the Object" Arrowmont School of Arts & Crafts. Gatlinburg, TN

2012 "The American Apprentice" Red Lodge Clay Center. Red Lodge, MT 

2012 "Pots with a Purpose"Ohio Craft Museum. Columbus, OH. 

2012 "DinnerWorks 2012" Norton Art Center. Louisville, KY 

2011 "Many Paths, A Legacy of Karen Karnes" Penland Gallery, Penland, NC 

2011 "Recent Work: 16 Hands" AKAR, Iowa City, IA 

2011 "American Pottery Festival" Northern Clay Center, Minneapolis, MN 

2011 "Minnesota Pottery Tour" St. Crox, MN 

2010 "Soda Chicks & Chet" Bakersville, NC 

2010 "Hand in Hand: Celebrating Community in Clay" Clay Art Center, Chester, NY 

2010 "American Pottery Festival" Northern Clay Center, Minneapolis, MN 

2010 "Minnesota Pottery Tour" St. Croix, MN 2009 “The Animal Within” Brenau University, Gainesville GA 

2009 “Interpreting Nature in Porcelain” Nature Art Gallery, Raleigh NC

2009 "Ron Myers' 75th Birthday Exhibition" Red Lodge Clay Center, Red Lodge, MT 

2009 "Pottery Not Plastic" Ferrin Gallery, Pittsfield, MA 

2009 “Ceramic Art of the Artist’s Choice” The Clay Art Center of The Hamptons, Sag Harbor NY

2009 “Infinite Teapot” Ohio Craft Museum, Columbus Ohio

2008 “Shared Journeys” American Art in China, NCECA/WVU.Pottery Workshop, Jingdezhen, China

2008 “Just Desserts” The Clay Studio, Philadelphia PA

2008 “Members of 16 Hands,” Carbondale Clay Center, Carbondale CO

2008 “16 Hands,” Red Lodge Clay Center, Red Lodge MT

2007 “Botanical” Santa Fe Clay, Santa FE NM

2007 “Eat With Your Eyes” Northern Clay Center, Minneapolis MN

2007 “Table Tops”, Long Beach Foundation of the Arts and Sciences, Love Ladies, NJ

2007 “Plates and Platters: Salon Style”, Harrison Gallery, Philadelphia PA

2007 “Dinnerworks”, Louisville Visual Art Association, Louisville, KY

2006 “Style and Function”, Blue Spiral, Asheville, NC

2006 “Craft: Tradition and Use”, SECCA, Winston-Salem, NC

2006 “Potluck”, Penland Design Gallery, Burnsville, NC

2007 “Minnesota Pottery Tour, St. Croix Valley, MN

2007 “From the Earth”, University of Kentucky Museum of Art, Lexington, KY

2007 “Ladies in White”, NCECA Exhibition, Louisville, KY

2006 “100 Tea Pots” , The Signature Shop & Gallery, Atlanta GA

2006 Two person show with Ron Myers, Cedar Creek Gallery, Creedmore, NC

2005 Watkins Gallery, Northampton, MA. "Soup to Nuts"

2005 John Michael Kohler Arts Center, Sheboygan WI. "Fill it to the Rim"

2005 Red Star Studios, Kansas City, MO. Potters of the Southern Mountains"

2005 Blue Spiral 1, Asheville, NC. "Hot/Ice"

2005 Setting the Table, Lill Street Gallery, Chicago, IL

2004 Solo Show, Terra Incognito, Chicago, IL

2004 Preserve Penland Show, Hodges Taylor Gallery, Charlotte, NC

2001 American Pottery Festival, Northern Clay Cent

2001 Strictly Functional, Market House Craft Center, PA

2000 Couplets: Duality in Clay, The Clay Studio, Philadelphia, PA

2000 William King Regional Arts Center, "Community in Clay: Four Floyd County Potters."

2000 Instructors' Exhibition, Greenwich House Pottery, New York