Archive: Arts & Entertainment

The Tompkins County Public Library will display Ten Years in Clay, a retrospective exhibit of the works of Eric Serritella.  The exhibit, which includes his current birch and weathered log pieces, opens February 7, 2009 and will be on display in the Avenue of the Friends through early March.

Serritella is a nationally exhibiting ceramic artist specializing in hand-carved trompe l’oeil vessels transformed into birch and weathered logs. His one-of-a-kind work has been awarded and exhibited in museums and galleries from coast to coast including Ithaca’s own Johnson Art Museum. It has been featured in Ceramics Monthly, Pottery Making Illustrated, Clay Times, and Ceramic Art (Taiwan), as well as in several books and calendars on ceramic art.

Serritella’s work is included in permanent museum collections, including the Everson Museum of Art’s world-class ceramics collection. Many nationally recognized private collections also contain his work, including the Kamm Teapot Foundation, which boasts the world’s largest private teapot collection. He has given workshops in the US, Canada and Taiwan.

Serritella’s career in clay began in 1996 when he took a hobby pottery class to find a new creative outlet and bring more balance to a busy corporate career.  He began Muddy Paws Pottery, a functional pottery production business in an effort to follow clay's calling and to bring a new spirit and satisfaction to his work life.  Pottery quickly took over and it is now his full time occupation.

 Serritella has a BA in Communication from Ithaca College. He also studied art history there and in London. His primary applied art training came in the form of two artist residencies studying with masters in Taiwan. It was there that he was taken with the historic Yixing teapots and introduced to the Japanese wabi philosophy.