Tatiana Argueta Garcia
BIO
Tatiana is an emerging artist and recent graduate of Sheridan College. Taking inspiration from nature, her work focuses on floriography, the language of flowers, and aims to show how simple objects can hold meaning and significance, transcribing each flowers translated meaning into clay vessels, using surface and form to bring a voice to a silent and forgotten language.
CAPSTONE PROJECT
FLORIOGRAPHY
Inspired by Floriography, the symbolic language of flowers, I create sculptural ceramic pieces that convey emotion and meaning through my interpretation of surface and form. Using motifs from nature to inspire the form of my pieces, I explore a botanical and floral language, transcribing each flower's translated meanings and expressions into clay vessels. My pieces consist of two complementary ideas that work together; an individual form to highlight the diversity and overall expression of floral elements; and the portrayal of emotion interchanged through simple objects Through naturalistic and detailed modelling, I draw the viewer in to contemplate the symbol of each flower, and to interpret the meaning and emotions associated with it.
FEATURED Work
Title: Garden
Dimensions: 25 x 30 x 30 in.
Year: 2023
Materials: stoneware, porcelain, slips
Title: Deceivious Datura
Dimensions: 25 x 10 x 15 in.
Year: 2023
Materials: stoneware, porcelain, slips
Title: Amaryllis
Dimensions: 25 x 10 x 15 in.
Year: 2023
Materials: stoneware, porcelain, slips
Title: Orange Blossoms, detail
Dimensions: 25 x 10 x 15 in.
Year: 2023
Materials: stoneware, porcelain, slips
Title: Protea, detail
Dimensions: 25 x 10 x 15 in.
Year: 2023
Materials: stoneware, porcelain, slips
Emma Bickers
BIO
Emma Bickers explores intimate connections through visual storytelling on earthenware figurative vessels. Her body of work depicts the vulnerable theme of sapphic identity, capturing tender emotions and loving narratives on her surfaces. Originally planning on becoming an illustrator, she found interest in ceramics after taking an introductory course. She now combines the two to create colourful illustrations that decorate the surface of large organic vessels.
CAPSTONE PROJECT
COME OUT INTO THE GARDEN
I explore intimate connections through visual storytelling on earthenware figurative vessels. My body of work depicts the vulnerable theme of sapphic identity, capturing tender emotions and loving narratives on my surfaces. The colourful illustrations applied with stained terra sigillata offer lighthearted interpretations of loaded narratives. This levity allows me to capture an essential part of my character and to share sensitive topics that I guard preciously.
FEATURED Work
Title: Carmilla Series
Dimensions: 47 x 26 x 23 , 70 x 46 x 52 , 68 x 42 x 51 cm
Year: 2022
Materials: Earthenware, stained Terra Sigillata
Title: Garden of Eden Series
Dimensions: 88 x 30 x 28 , 92 x 36 x 32 , 89 x 39 x 35 cm
Year: 2021
Materials: Earthenware, stained Terra Sigillata
Title: Pandora
Dimensions: 29 x 17 x 12 cm
Year: 2023
Materials: Earthenware, stained Terra Sigillata
Title: Garden Teaset
Dimensions: 28 x 20 x 15 , 12 x 10 x 9 , 11 x 10 x 9 cm
Year: 2021
Materials: Earthenware, stained Terra Sigillata, Glaze
CONTACT
EMMA BICKERS
She/Her
Mariana Bolaños Inclán
BIO
I am a Mexican sculptor based in Tkaronto. My body of work is based on the stories of where I come from and who I am as a woman and as an immigrant. I use references to pre-hispanic symbols and Mexican popular culture to represent these stories in figurative sculptures. Focusing on art with a social purpose, I work as a facilitator in community programs with children, women and newcomers around Tkaronto and the GTA.
CAPSTONE PROJECT
FROM SEEDS
We come from nature, from el maíz. Like seeds buried in the ground, the missing and murdered women in Canada and Mexico emerge to bring life. Nature’s cycles of life and death are symbols of resilience. I make my work with a voice that speaks about injustice and pain, but also endurance and power; here, I am able to convey the stories of where I come from and who I am as a woman and as an immigrant. My experience with ceramics began in Mexico extracting clay directly from nature. Drawing on these memories has made the language of the raw material important in my work. Paying close attention to the roundness of the form, the malleability of clay and the building of textures on the surface, my work alludes to life and fertility.
FEATURED Work
Title: From Seeds
Dimensions: 24 x 30 x 24 in.
Year: 2023
Materials: Stoneware and slips
Title: Head with Crown
Dimensions: 12 x 12 x 8 in.
Year: 2023
Materials: Stoneware and slips
Title: From Seeds
Dimensions: 24 x 30 x 24 in.
Year: 2023
Materials: Stoneware and slips
Title: From Seeds, detail
Dimensions: 24 x 30 x 24 in.
Year: 2023
Materials: Stoneware and slips
Title: Hojas
Dimensions: 5 x 10 x 6 in.
Year: 2022
Materials: Stoneware and slips
Dana Dallal
BIO
Based in Toronto Ontario, Dana Dallal is an emerging ceramic artist. Growing up, Dana spent countless summer days harvesting bounty from her grandparent’s backyard, cycling around town alone, and exploring every nook and cranny of her parent’s fresh cut flower warehouse. When she wasn’t exploring these magical places, she could be found inside her grandmother’s workroom, sewing dresses for her dolls and Barbies from the tender age of six. Dana has a habit of becoming sentimentally attached to objects because to her they contain memories that would otherwise be lost.
Before studying ceramics at Sheridan College, Dana trained as a Fashion Designer at Toronto Metropolitan University and The London College of Fashion. She spent ten years working for luxury designer labels in the UK in a variety of creative roles. After returning to Canada with her young family, she started taking evening pottery classes and became completely engrossed. She quickly left her old career behind to pursue this new path. Dana’s work now explores how personal memories become distorted over time. She creates sculptures and vessels that reference her colourful and creative childhood.
CAPSTONE PROJECT
PIECES ARTICULATED
I create sculptural objects and functional vessels that contain personal memories. I use a broad and subtle palette of colored slip painted in layers to illustrate silhouettes of flowers and leaves. The botanical surfaces, with graphic, geometric elements recall time I spent in my family’s floral warehouse, among tightly bundled blooms kept in cylindrical buckets and rectangular boxes. Memories are only accessible in bits and pieces, and are difficult to recreate as a whole. I layer images to communicate the poetic ephemeral world where memories come into sharp focus or recede into the background, obscuring or highlighting parts of our past. My work suggests the complex and multidimensional nature of memory, as it distorts and changes over time.
FEATURED Work
Title: Sunset Blossoms
Dimensions: 27 x 15 x 17 in.
Year: 2022
Materials: Stoneware, Slips, Glazes
Title: Lidded Boxes
Dimensions: 16 x 7 x 10 in.
Year: 2023
Materials: Stoneware, Slips, Glazes
Title: Piece 3
Dimensions: 16 x 7 x 10 in.
Year: 2023
Materials: Stoneware, Slips, Glazes
Alice Dawson
BIO
Alice Dawson is a Canadian artist that uses ceramics to explore complicated feelings of being human, the intimacy of looking inward to evolve and the act of sharing oneself with the outside world. She views self-reflection as an intimate ritual and studies how to communicate the private process of picking over memories through sculptural iterations—investigating the vulnerable and complicated emotions of tracing tangled lines of memory. Her current series of works “Looking Inside” expresses the disjointed and fragile feeling of opening yourself up and looking inside. From these feelings, she creates uncanny and surreal objects that evolve as new revelations about the self are discovered and uncovered.
CAPSTONE PROJECT
UNTIL I'M BONES
In this body of work, I explore self-reflection and how to communicate the intimate process of picking over memories through sculptural iterations—investigating the vulnerable and complicated emotions of opening yourself up and looking inside.
FEATURED Work
Title: All the Things I Hold Inside
Dimensions: 15 x 30 in.
Year: 2023
Materials: Dark stoneware, glaze, ink
Title: Ideation
Title: Cluster
Dimensions: 8 x 10 in.
Year: 2022
Materials: Stoneware
Title: Ideation 2
Title: Ideation 3
Helene Hadfield
BIO
As an artist, I draw inspiration from the natural world and the dynamic relationship between form and texture. My creations showcase tactile surfaces and abstract paintings that offer viewers new discoveries with each observation.
Although my working with clay was a later development in my creative journey, I have spent years exploring various mediums. Craft and Design at Sheridan College helped me gain the technical and aesthetic skills to shape my artistic voice.
I am now thrilled to be starting the MFA program at USF, where I will continue to refine my craft and further explore my artistic vision.
CAPSTONE PROJECT
MY HEART BELONGS TO CORNWALL
My work reflects my love for exploration, whether it be hiking, traveling, tinkering or experimenting. Ceramics, with its intricacies and dimensions, provides endless opportunities to explore the chemistry of clay, the complexities of glazes, and the stories that can be told through each piece. I draw inspiration from the ideas of permanence and ancestral memories that live within the land and strive to find the balance between optimism and realism amidst the current climate of uncertainty.
"My Travels on the Southwest Coast Path," is a personal journey inspired by my hike along the Cornwall coast of England. I hiked while dealing with extremely challenging health concerns and the journey became a powerful experience of self-discovery, reflection, and triumph. My work in this series reflects that journey, teetering between the rocky and the bleak, but always with an inner resolve that things will be “okay”.
FEATURED Work
Title: Becoming Real
Dimensions: 17 x 17 x 5 in.
Year: 2023
Materials: Black clay, engobe, underglaze, glaze
Title: Climb Every Mountain
Dimensions: 40 x 40 x 10 in.
Year: 2023
Materials: Black clay, inclusions, engobe, underglaze, glaze
Title: Down by the River to Play
Dimensions: 35 x 25 x 6 in.
Year: 2023
Materials: Black clay, inclusions, engobe, underglaze, glaze
Title: I See You in My Dreams
Dimensions: 30 x 25 x 5 in.
Year: 2023
Materials: Black clay, inclusions, engobe, underglaze, glaze
Title: It Takes a Village
Dimensions: 17 x 12 x 12 in.
Year: 2023
Materials: Black clay, inclusions, engobe, underglaze, glaze
Title: What Lies Beneath
Dimensions: 17 x 17 x 5 in.
Year: 2022
Materials: Black clay, inclusions, engobe, underglaze, glaze
William Lee
BIO
Seeking growth in my knowledge and skills as a ceramic artist, I approach my work by thoroughly analyzing the process of making as I work towards a deeper understanding of how ceramics works. I have a passion for the challenge and complexity of slip casting and mould making. When considering the surface and glazes, the balance between decoration and function presents another challenge in the process, allowing me a continuous opportunity to grow and develop new ways to explore the process of making. Pairing my interests in slip casting and glaze research; with my love of food, I create organic forms that elevate and present food in an exciting way. Breaking from the restrictions of traditional dinnerware, I delve into the nature-inspired voluminous forms that have become the main theme of my current body of work.
CAPSTONE PROJECT
ANOMALY
Seeking growth in my knowledge and skills as a ceramic artist, I approach my work by thoroughly analyzing the process of making as I work towards a deeper understanding of how ceramics works. I have a passion for the challenge and complexity of slip casting and mould making. When considering the surface and glazes, the balance between decoration and function presents another challenge in the process, allowing me a continuous opportunity to grow and develop new ways to explore the process of making. Pairing my interests in slip casting and glaze research; with my love of food, I create organic forms that elevate and present food in an exciting way. Breaking from the restrictions of traditional dinnerware, I delve into the nature-inspired voluminous forms that have become the main theme of my current body of work.
FEATURED Work
Title: Anomaly
Dimensions: 30 x 30 x 15 in.
Year: 2023
Materials: Cone 6 Porcelain
Title: Anomaly
Dimensions: 20 x 15 x 7 in.
Year: 2023
Materials: Cone 6 Porcelain
Title: Anomaly
Dimensions: 10 x 10 x 12 in.
Year: 2023
Materials: Cone 6 Porcelain
Title: Anomaly
Dimensions: Various sizes
Year: 2023
Materials: Cone 6 Porcelain
Title: Anomaly
Dimensions: Various sizes
Year: 2023
Materials: Cone 6 Porcelain
Ziyu Li
BIO
I am a student graduated from the Craft and Design Program at Sheridan College, with a major in ceramics. In this program, I have been given the opportunity to explore various ceramic techniques and crafts, learning how to design and create unique ceramic pieces. My love for ceramics comes from my exploration of life, where I enjoy capturing joyful moments and experimenting with different ceramic techniques. Through the process of exploring ceramics, I have come to recognize my weaknesses, accepting them and becoming a better person.
CAPSTONE PROJECT
BUILD MY SKETCHBOOK
My current project is about my sketchbook. To me, a sketchbook is a journal of the artist’s life, recording ideas, feelings, and stories that happen in daily life. To me, these things in my sketchbook are precious memories. Making these memories with clay, turning them from Illusory concepts into clay objects, allows me to transfer my journal into my work in ceramics. I enjoy seeing my doodles from my sketchbook becoming the surface of my ceramic ware. The ink-drawing style, black and white, dot and line, and the finished, fired pages communicate how I use drawing and illustration to express my ideas, thoughts, and feelings personally. Clay allows those elements to escape the 2-dimensional paper surface, into a new type of space, through underglaze, slip, glaze, and low-relief surfaces. I am creating a new type of sketchbook to contain my ideas.
FEATURED Work
Title: Journal Tiles
Dimensions: 24 x 15 x 0.25 in.
Year: 2023
Materials: Underglaze, White Stoneware, Slip, Gloop
Monica Protacio
BIO
Monica is a Filipino-Canadian artist who specializes in functional ceramics inspired by her experiences living with neurodivergence. Prior to attending Sheridan's Ceramics program, Monica previously worked in the hospitality industry for several years after attending culinary school. While doing art as a hobby, she decided to enroll in the Art Fundamentals program at Sheridan where she was introduced to the world of ceramics. Living with ADHD, she gravitated towards the visual and tactile qualities of clay. She is greatly influenced by what she considers the main parallel between clay and cooking: the hands-on approach to the processes used to highlight the natural properties of materials and ingredients respectively. Textured surfaces superimposed onto altered forms represent a healthier relationship with her neurodivergence through self-acceptance and compassion.
CAPSTONE PROJECT
PARALLEL
My body of work is the result of creating a safe space for my neurodivergence, which I translate in clay. It consists of functional vessels marked by intuitive gestures and spontaneity, with every alteration being analogous to my experiences living with ADHD. I am greatly influenced by what I consider the main parallel between clay and cooking: the hands-on approach to the processes used to highlight the natural properties of materials and ingredients respectively. Textured surfaces superimposed onto altered forms represent a healthier relationship with my neurodivergence through self-acceptance and compassion.
FEATURED Work
Title: Parallel I
Dimensions: 27 x 7.8 x 7.4 in.
Year: 2023
Materials: Soda-fired dark stoneware, engobe, glaze
Title: Parallel II
Dimensions: 27 x 7.8 x 7.4 in.
Year: 2023
Materials: Soda-fired dark stoneware, engobe, glaze
Title: Sharing Teapot
Dimensions: 10 x 7.5 x 6 in.
Year: 2023
Materials: Soda-fired dark stoneware, slip, glaze
Title: In the Background
Dimensions: 21 x 6 x 6.25 in.
Year: 2022
Materials: Salt-fired stoneware, flashing slips, glaze
Title: Hands-On
Dimensions: 22 x 6.5 x 6.5 in.
Year: 2023
Materials: Soda-fired porcelain, engobes, slips, glazes
Ailia Rizvi
BIO
Ailia Rizvi is a queer Pakistani-Canadian craftsperson making ceramic works that explore play, ritual and reverie.
CAPSTONE PROJECT
OBJECTS OF AFFECTION
Through a vibrant investigation of colour and form, I explore play and reverie within a landscape of candelabras and vessels. I’m inspired by shrines as a physical manifestation of devotion and accumulation, and how they serve as places of personal solitude and interpersonal connection. I build each piece with exaggerated pinch marks, emphasizing tenderness and interaction; traces of my hand are left behind in the structure of each piece, making surfaces that both allude to and invite touch. I am drawn to finding these parallels and patterns that are over arching; connecting seemingly unrelated realms and ideas. I embrace the connectedness of everything, the layers and layers of references that can be endlessly combined to create a new language. I think about how knitting is coil building, a slab is quilt, and how Confetti glaze is a collection of beautiful paper. There are parallels and tangents, and a reason for everything. Through hand built, colourful and pattern-ful works, I create objects that are an invitation to look within with affection, rather than fear.
FEATURED Work
Title: Candelabras
Dimensions: 22 x 4 x 4 in.
Year: 2023
Materials: Glazed Stoneware
Title: Pillar
Dimensions: 24 x 6 x 6 in.
Year: 2023
Materials: Glazed Stoneware
Title: Candelabra
Dimensions: 7 x 5 x 5 in.
Year: 2023
Materials: Glazed Stoneware
Title: Candelabra
Dimensions: 22 x 8 x 4 in.
Year: 2023
Materials: Glazed Stoneware
Alassandra Rojo
BIO
From a young age, Alassandra has always been drawn towards the arts and would frequently find herself dabbling in a diverse array of crafts and hobbies. In the fall of 2019, she attended her first ceramic class at Sheridan College and immediately fell in love with the medium. Alassandra is looking forward to graduating with a Bachelors degree in Craft and Design, specializing in ceramics and hopes to pursue a career within arts administration. No matter where she goes, Alassandra will always intertwine her love for the arts within her day-to-day life.
CAPSTONE PROJECT
COMFORT IN CLAY
I am often drawn to pattern, balance, and symmetry for the calm space they offer within the fluctuating ebbs and flows of life. The intricacy found in Persian rugs, Indian block-printed textiles and Middle Eastern architecture inspires my elaborate designs. Combining soft slabs and wheel-thrown components, I create a variety of functional pieces, all with the intention of enhancing the home and daily life. I enjoy the process of making my own moulds, templates and mark-making tools. Using handcrafted stamps, I create floral compositions and blooming patterns on my pieces; producing detailed, embossed surface designs. Having the ability to create my own patterns provides me with the space to express my own sense of harmony and flow.
FEATURED Work
Title: Bloom Vase Series 3
Dimensions: 46 x 20 x 20 in.
Year: 2023
Materials: Glazed stoneware
Title: Bloom Vase Series 4
Dimensions: 51 x 15 x 15 in.
Year: 2023
Materials: Glazed stoneware
Title: Persian Rose Vase (Small)
Dimensions: 13 x 13 x 10 in.
Year: 2023
Materials: Glazed stoneware
Title: Bloom Mug Series Arrangement
Dimensions: 12 x 12 x 14 in.
Year: 2023
Materials: Glazed stoneware
Title: Gulnar Flower Dish (in use)
Dimensions: 2 x 12 x 10 in.
Year: 2023
Materials: Glazed stoneware
Aprilyn Tompa
BIO
My work derives from childhood memories and recollections of family and domestic life. Reimagined through a surrealist lens, I create narrative-driven sculptures that combine representational imagery and the human figure. Expressing personal moments that range from everyday experiences to childlike daydreams, these fantasies are brought to life with bright pops of colour and figurative distortions. I use this ghostly cast of imaginary characters to celebrate my fondness for the strange and unusual. Within these playful sculptures, the eyes are often hidden. By concealing this familiar feature, I am offered a veil of protection as I share my intimate memories.
CAPSTONE PROJECT
IN THIS HOUSE THERE IS A GHOST. IT IS ME.
This house is haunted but who's the ghost?
My work derives from childhood memories and recollections of family and domestic life. Reimagined through a surrealist lens, I create narrative-driven sculptures that combine representational imagery and the human figure. Expressing personal moments that range from everyday experiences to childlike daydreams, these fantasies are brought to life with bright pops of colour and figurative distortions. I use this ghostly cast of imaginary characters to celebrate my fondness for the strange and unusual.
FEATURED Work
Title: Rotten roots, broken branches
Dimensions: 38 x 14 x 14 in.
Year: 2023
Materials: Stoneware, slips and glazes, flocking, mixed media materials
Title: Rotten roots, broken branches (back)
Dimensions: 38 x 14 x 14 in.
Year: 2023
Materials: Stoneware, slips and glazes, flocking, mixed media materials
Title: Little Stinker
Dimensions: 14 x 9 x 7 in.
Year: 2022
Materials: Stoneware, slips and glazes, merino wool, Angelina fibre, mixed media materials
Title: Rotten roots, rotten fruit
Dimensions: 21 x 9 x 5 in.
Year: 2022
Materials: Stoneware, underglaze, flocking, gold lustre, mixed media materials
Title: Up in flames
Dimensions: 7.5 x 5 x 5 in.
Year: 2022
Materials: Stoneware, slips and glazes, birthday candles, mixed media materials
Xinyun Zhang
BIO
(Ella) Xinyun Zhang was born and raised in Zhenjiang, Jiangsu, China. She went to study ceramic at Sheridan College in Canada.
Ella is an emerging ceramic artist who took inspirations from her personal experience. She is also a painting artist who make realistic paintings and digital paintings. Her work explores the underglaze painting techniques on ceramic sculptures, she combines 2D decorations on 3D forms to create unique designs.
In the future, Ella will keep exploring more painting techniques on her ceramic pieces, she will keep learning and developing her studies in both ceramic and painting fields.
CAPSTONE PROJECT
CONNECTION
Death’s face I wonder, lilies alone shown.
My first experience with losing someone happened when I was 14 years old. My elementary school teacher passed away. I felt that loss intensely and the memory is still with me. At the funeral, I tried to see her face one last time, but I was too short and the coffin was so big. I could not see her. I could only see layers of countless, white lily flowers. There are two mirrors inside this piece, showing the viewer unlimited reflections of lilies, recreating that moment of confusion and searching for the lost one.
Everything I have been thinking about and making this year is based on introspection and memories. The pandemic gave me time to explore my feelings, talk to myself, and reflect. Throughout this journey, I delved deeply into my thoughts and emotions, faced my own struggles and uncertainties.
FEATURED Work
Title: Realization
Dimensions: 40 x 11 x 11 in.
Year: 2023
Materials: Stoneware, underglaze, mirror
Title: Realization, detail
Dimensions: 40 x 11 x 11 in.
Year: 2023
Materials: Stoneware, underglaze, mirror
Title: Seeking
Dimensions: 25 x 9 x9 in.
Year: 2022
Materials: Black Stoneware, underglaze, google eyes
Title: Babel
Dimensions: 25 x 9 x 9 in.
Year: 2023
Materials: Stoneware, underglaze
Title: Understanding
Dimensions: 40 x 25 x 20 in.
Year: 2022
Materials: Black and green Stoneware, underglaze, mp3 soundtrack