Heidi McKay Casto creates objects that explore the intersections of utility and sculpture, and feature a variety of playful design elements, anthropomorphic animal portraits, and vibrant colors. Her work explores similarities between instinctual animal behaviors, and behaviors learned through her lived experience as a woman, artist, and mother, gaining insight and inspiration for living with fewer insecurities and societal pressures. Heidi desires for the work to be a synchronistic exchange of connection where care and beauty are more present in daily life for users, and where complex human emotions might be made more discernible through light-hearted depictions of anthropomorphized animal subjects.

I am a clay artist, humanitarian, and global trotter. My work and passions center on the lives of little girls who were and still are my mentors as I traveled the world. I am concerned about their ability to live full, healthy lives without the burdens of war, child marriages, sex trafficking, displacement, and harmful ritualistic practices. My intention is to bring awareness to the human condition beyond the comfort zones that we may or may not live within. I, along with 8 girls, formed the Apron Project in Cambodia, which is a sustainable entrepreneurial project for girls and young women reintegrated back into society after being forced into the commercial sex industry. We create beautiful, one-of-a-kind aprons that I sell on my Etsy store. I have volunteered in Cambodia since 2007, and would like to for the remainder of my life.

In recent years, I’ve made a departure from bodies of work that were incredibly heart-wrenching and decided to focus on work that simultaneously contains social commentary and is heart-warming. Clay is my primary material using the sculptural language, in addition to mixed media materials, like cloth, dirt, glass, etc. My dominant subject matter is little girls and women. My work is fueled by their human stories.

Meredith Host (she/her) produces contemporary tableware and textiles with retro flair. Her dot patterns are inspired by her collection of toilet paper and paper towel designs. She obsesses about these ubiquitous domestic patterns subtly quilted on the paper products we see, use, and throw away every day. Meredith reinterprets these motifs and celebrates them in the context of other domestic objects meant for daily use.  

Meredith received her BFA in Ceramics from Kansas City Art Institute in 2001 and her MFA in Ceramics from The Ohio State University in 2008. She was named one of the 2011 Emerging Artists for NCECA and Ceramics Monthly, and in 2016 was a Presenter at the Utilitarian Clay Symposium. Currently, Meredith lives in Kansas City, MO, teaches workshops around the country, and is a founding member of the Kansas City Urban Potters.

The seeds of inspiration for my current work derive from 17th century Persian miniature paintings and 16th century Dutch still lives. These works display a peculiar balance of deep atmospheric space with an intense attention to minute detail, combinations so resolved that they need for nothing more. In making work, I’m curious about the spaces we inhabit, how we move through our environments, from the lens of domestic objects, architecture, design and daily routine. Familiar objects and their function are examined and reimagined through a loose sense of Scandinavian and mid-century modern sensibility, with a focus on the practical, architectural and essential elements. The results offer the comfort of the familiar with a sense of simplicity, reliability and no-frill timelessness.

Missy McCormick is an artist and art educator, based in Youngstown, OH. After graduating with her BFA in 3D/Ceramics she started her clay career as a production potter in North Georgia’s Appalachian Mountains. Missy received a MFA from the University of Florida and began exhibiting her work and teaching ceramics in a variety of different academic programs across North America. 

After spending over 10 years working solely with soda and wood firing processes, Missy has transitioned her creative research to incorporate atmospheric results at low temperature, fuming terra sigillata surfaces on functional earthenware clay forms. This direction has inspired the use of a new pallet of color, surface, and decorative possibilities. Her inspiration for this shift was spurred by a visit to the Cleveland Museum of Art while teaching a summer course at the Cleveland Institute of Art in 2001, where she stumbled upon a collection of Persian miniature paintings. The intense detailed patterning, subtle value shifts of the backgrounds, and asymmetrical framing of the compositions continue to keep her intrigued.

Missy McCormick has been a resident artist at The International Ceramic Research Center- Guldagergaard in Denmark, Banff Center for the Arts in Alberta Canada, Women Studio Workshop in New York, and has taught ceramics in various positions at the following institutions: Youngstown State University, University of Wisconsin, Madison, University of Arkansas at Little Rock, Florida Atlantic University, Alberta College of Art and Design in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, and Georgia Southern University. Other creative endeavors include starting a community ceramic art studio, Whistle Stop Clay Works, and co-founding the Loveland Farmers’ Market in Loveland, OH.