Ann Gleason, one of Tryon Arts & Crafts School’s esteemed artisans, has been named the school’s Artist of the Month. Her artwork will be featured for the month of May in the gallery of the school,  373 Harmon Field Road in Tryon. Hours are Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturdays 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Ann Gleason had been a potter and clay artist for over 30 years. She has had a studio in Tryon since the mid-1980s, producing wheel-thrown functional stoneware and one-of-a-kind sculptural works.

Though she has always taught pottery workshops and classes at art centers and schools, in recent years she taught ceramics as an adjunct professor in the visual arts program of Greenville Technical College in Greer, S.C. and at Wofford College.

Gleason attended college as an art student at SUNY Potsdam, N.Y., worked in NYC and continued her pottery in a studio there, then got her graduate degree (MFA) in ceramics in 1982 at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Gleason says, “My functional work is largely thrown on the wheel.  It was my bread and butter income for many years. Though I don’t produce as many of these pots as I once did, I have never grown tired of reinventing new ways to make good pots. New design, glazes, forms and firing methods have evolved over the years. There is an inexhaustible supply of possibilities to work with that will always keep things exciting for me. My wheel-work has changed a lot over the years and will continue to do so. The sculptural work first evolved out of a private and creative need and has grown from there. I am concerned with the richness of the Appalachian culture and how it derives from and interweaves with the natural world, visually, musically or in written and oral traditions of storytelling and writing.” 

Aside from teaching workshops at Tryon Arts & Crafts School and exhibiting her work in TACS’ gift shop and gallery shows, Ann will be heading Thermal Belt Outreach’s Empty Bowls bowl-making sessions this summer at the school, with dates to be determined. 

– article submitted by Cathy Fischer