Dodd's Professor of Art and Area Chair for Ceramics, Ted Saupe, and alum Maria Dondero (MFA 2008) are participating in Minneapolis’ Northern Clay Center’s American Pottery Festival taking place September 7 to September 9. It will kick off with their Opening Night Party on Friday, September 7.

This mindfully-forged platform brings together makers, clay lovers, learners, collectors, and simply the curious, to play and to be inspired. Each year, the American Pottery Festival includes artists from large and small markets around the country, artists from all career stages and ages, and some local gems. The richness of experience, knowledge, and generosity represented by 2018’s artists will provide learning opportunities for everyone—from student to collector to fellow maker. The weekend is always filled with chances to engage directly with artists during image presentations, workshops, lectures, panel discussions, and casual gallery chats.

Saupe has been a Professor of Art at the University of Georgia since 1992. He received his MFA from the University of Wisconsin in 1979. Saupe uses both 2D and 3D components to create objects that reflect his musings on history, the unconscious mind, and past relationships. Saupe handbuilds his porcelain cups, boxes, and architectural forms. The surfaces are unrefined, a match for his graffiti-like imagery.

Dondero is a Part-time Instructor at the Dodd. Dondero opened a studio/gallery in Athens, Marmalade Pottery, shortly after completing her MFA in 2008 at the University of Georgia. In 2016, she opened even larger studio and gallery, Southern Star Studio, where many local artists have presented their work. Her work focuses on functional pottery whose aesthetics draw on the age old and worldwide history of ceramics. While subtly referencing pottery traditions form around the world, Maria intuitively sketches images from her surroundings, grounding her work from Georgia soil.