Grove City College’s Pew Fine Arts Center Gallery will highlight the work of local artist Amanda DiAlesandro with a one-woman show in February.
“Pots and Practicality,” featuring functional and decorative ceramics pieces created by DiAlesandro, runs from Feb. 1 to 28 in the gallery on campus. The exhibit is free and open to the public. There will be an artist’s reception in the gallery from 5 to 7 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 1.
“In most ways, ceramics found me,” DiAlesandro, who teaches art at Grove City Area High School, said in her artist’s statement. She came to ceramics late in her artistic education when she took a class in her senior year of college. She struggled with the media and remembers thinking “I hope I never have to teach this.” A year later, she got a job as a high school ceramics teacher and “fell in love with clay,” first with handbuilding and then throwing clay on a wheel.
“I can’t imagine a life without the rewards and challenges of finding the perfect center in a ball of misshapen clay. Sculpting something out of essentially nothing is one of the poetic qualities that keeps me coming back to wheel throwing,” she said. “I am so lucky to still be teaching ceramics. I get to share my passion with students every day.”
The Pew Fine Arts Center Gallery is open from 4 to 8 p.m. Monday through Friday, and from 1 to 5 p.m. on Saturday.