CMC Ceramics instructor to exhibit at Art on the Rockies
Reprinted from the Vail Daily. By Brenda Himelfarb
Artist Colleen Sullivan Everett is gregarious and energetic.
Everett, the executive director of the Vail Valley Arts League, is one busy lady who juggles her time promoting the arts in the valley, teaching ceramics at Colorado Mountain College and creating nationally recognized sculpture. She attended the College of Design, Architecture and Art at the University of Cincinnati for a BFA and MFA in ceramics and studied with many leaders of the American studio clay movement, including Roy Cartwright, Ron Arneson, Andrea Joseph and Paul Soldner.
Honored by the American Crafts Council as one of the top new artists in 1985, Everett, who became a sculptural tile maker, founded a studio and gallery in Maryland, which focused on architectural commissions in clay. Her large-scale ceramic wall murals include a monumental mosaic project in Ocean City, Maryland for 28 boardwalk intersections, each measuring 25 square feet.
“I enjoy and appreciate many aspects of ceramics,” Everett said, “but it’s the sculptural aesthetic of thrown and carved art pieces that has held my attention for the last 20 years.”
Everett began her career in Seattle, Wash., teaching ceramics and soon began exhibiting nationwide. These days, her work can be found in the White House Collection, the Smithsonian and many corporate and noted private collections. As well, her work has been exhibited at the Contemporary Crafts Museum in New York, Springfield and Seattle Art Museums and galleries across the country.
“I love the whole process of designing work and overcoming the technical challenges that seem to come with each piece,” Everett said. “In the end, it’s simple beauty that moves me the most and I feel successful and grateful when it moves others.”
Everett’s work will be exhibited, along with more than 95 other artists, at the first annual Art in the Rockies juried art show to be presented at Colorado Mountain College in Edwards on July 9 and 10.