I'm interested in the vessel as a metaphor. Having grown up poor, I've never been able to let go of function in my work; everything has to have some sort of purpose. But I'm also interested in so much more than the cup, the bowl, the teapot.... I don't always start out with a concrete idea; I build intuitively until something starts to happen. It's a collaboration between me and the material, and it's through my hands and the quality of touch that I'm able to honor honesty, vibrancy, energy, and humility.
—Candice Methe
Originally from Falmouth, Massachusetts, Candice Methe is a studio artist and educator now living in Gerton, North Carolina. She has been working in clay for twenty-five years and has held residencies at the Roswell Artist in Residence Foundation (Roswell, NM), The Archie Bray Foundation for the Ceramic Arts (Helena, MT), Red Lodge Clay Center (Red Lodge, MT) and Santa Fe Clay (Santa Fe, NM). She received her BFA in Ceramics and Art History from Northern Arizona University and her MFA from the University of Minnesota. Inspired by historical objects, she has traveled to Japan, Nicaragua and sites across the US to study various practices of clay artisans. In 2016 she received the Warren MacKenzie Advancement Award through Northern Clay Center to travel to Ghana, West Africa, where she studied indigenous clay architecture and learned traditional ways of working with clay.