Sharon Bartmann

View Sharon's Work

I had a roundabout journey to ceramics. My degree is in journalism with a concentration in advertising. I spent my first 15 years as a graphic designer in Philadelphia and Los Angeles. My last 5 years were as an art director at the Philadelphia Zoo. I took a breath to raise my children and fell into ceramics at my local art center, taking classes with my girls. I then began to experiment with clay on my own and through various classes at the art center. I was asked to teach and fell in love with sharing my love of clay. I am currently, teaching, teaching and selling my work at various galleries and have been published in several books.

Creative drive:
“My drive to create my own work came a little later in life. I always had my hands in some creative process. As you experience and go through changes in life, you find your creative outlet and a voice. I can’t imagine a day when I don’t experience some kind of creative process.”

Key emotion represented in work:
"A beauty of things imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete”

— Wabi-Sabi

"Hand building with clay brings me to a place of peace and meditation.  I get lost in the repetitive motion of smoothing a bowl or rounding a pinch pot with my fingers. If you close your eyes and just feel the clay and its smoothness, it is almost hypnotic.

In my crazy life, I find this to be a welcome state of being. The organic nature of clay gives me a connection to earth and mother nature. This has always been a place that brings serenity to me.

This taking of a clump of clay and building a 3-dimensional piece of art satisfies a challenge to me. I have an innate sense of architecture and engineering in my blood. I came from a family of architects and visionaries and this process allows me to use those qualities.

If you will notice, my pieces often show the seams and imperfections that hand building allows. This is where I find the true beauty of a craft made with the hands as the primarily tool. Each piece is unique and often created intuitively. I may start out with a specific shape or idea and end up with a totally different outcome. The element of surprise is what I find magical in the process."

What is unique about your process:

"In order to combine my past life as a graphic designer and my current passion of ceramics, I began to experiment with the decal process. After doing raku ceramics for the past 8 years, I was ready to try something new. I have long been fascinated by the various means of transferring images onto clay. I start by pouring the liquid slip into a hand built mold. After the basic tile shape is formed and bisque fired, I then use oxide washes and stains to create a painterly effect on the background. After this is dry, I dip the tile into high fire glazes, often playing with the thickness of the application. When the tile is fired to cone 6, I then apply the decals, which have been created in adobe illustrator. You can also use Photoshop. The images are printed onto a water-slide decal paper. Once applied to the tile, it again is placed in the kiln at a low-fire temperature. This final firing allows for the high-fire glaze to flux just enough to adhere to the decal as the edges burn away and the images and tile become one. Although the images when created are done in black and white, the glaze only picks up the iron in the toner and thus produces a sepia effect."

Personal relationship with your work:
"My ceramics work forces me to remember the smaller things in life and not to be so worried about the end result. Enjoy the journey. Although I have a vision of where I am going with each piece, I often spontaneously deviate. This process reminds me to let life surprise me and take a deep breath and take it all in."

Thoughts on sharing art:
“Sharing art gives me a voice. It is my statement on life. I get to show the world what matters to me and hope the viewer will bring in their own experiences and take some meaning from each piece.”

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