Deborah Stewart

"Clay forms are like dance forms: quite likely there are no shapes or rhythms that have not been seen or used before.  The freshness of an idea is determined by the grace or quirkiness with which elements are reconceived and reassembled into a unique vision.  The presence is a result of straightforward dynamics, surety of line, complexity or simplicity of the direct statement.  Technique is only a means to an end, not an end in itself."

                                                                      -Deborah Stewart

Artistic expression is an understatement for artist Deborah Stewart, who teaches ceramics and three dimensional design and is a dance instructor, performer and choreographer of modern dance. Stewart earned her MFA in Visual Art/Sculpture in 1993 from Vermont College of Norwich University, and her BFA in Design/Ceramics in 1991 from Buffalo State College. She received an MS in Biology from Yale University, and a BA in Biology from Antioch College.

Stewart worked as a self-employed studio potter and ran her own businesses at Salamander Pottery from 1980-1991 and at Pipe Creek Pottery from 1976-1978. She is currently teaching Ceramics and Three Dimensional Design at Niagara County Community College, where she has been a member of the faculty since 1997.  Stewart also taught at the University at Buffalo's Creative Craft Center, where she instructed children's workshops in mixed-media and clay and adult workshops in clay. She has previously taught at Buffalo State College's Workshop in Crafts in Clay in 1996 and in their Design Department from 1991-1995. Stewart has exhibited over twenty-three times since 1990, including her two-person "Cloth and Clay" shows from 1998-2000 and other various exhibitions in Vermont, Tennessee, Ohio and, Buffalo.