Recorded in the River Bank. Soda fired clay, 3" x 30" x 20", 2025

Willow Stevenson was born and raised in Western North Carolina and grew up spending most days outside and making art. She graduated from Guilford College in 2021 with a BA in Art and Environmental Studies and was a part of the Bonner Scholars program and Honors program. Willow was a resident artist and teacher at a community arts center in Missouri called Access Arts and she has also worked at Starworks Ceramics Supply and Clay Factory in Star NC. In 2024 Willow completed a Post Baccalaureate in Ceramics from Tulane University in New Orleans. Willow enjoys working at the intersection of art + the environment as well as integrating multiple mediums to explore the interconnections of landscapes, bodies, time, and sense of place.

Artist Statement

I am repeatedly drawn to the landscape of Southern Appalachia. I seek to dig deeper into my connection with the Appalachian Mountains and my family history there. I am continually making work about the river near my house: mica shimmering on its banks, the deep green of waxy rhododendron leaves reflected in the water’s flow with mountain laurel and dogwood blooms swirling in the current. Goldenrod, mulberries, and cardinal flowers, as well as rusty barb wire, old glass bottles, and the other manufactured objects that get washed up from the river after a storm. These memories from my childhood and my mountain home are forefront in my mind even as I travel and experience new places and landscapes.

Some of my recent work consists of clay wreath shapes encircling small sleeping creatures. These wreaths offer a portal to landscapes that are disappearing and memories that are fading. They are made up of natural and man made objects: grass, berries, snakes, letters, jewelry, candles, matches, barb wire, a quilt, and many more small details hidden within. Other recent work consists of paper clay fragments that hold drawings of memories and excerpts from love letters and journals. Through atmospheric firing, the intimate drawings and words are somewhat obscured to veil the contents and to create a weathered appearance. By drawing onto the clay, these remembrances are preserved better than they could be on real paper or in my mind. All of this work is an altar, a sacred space, and an offering to the land. By recreating the symbology that I associate with Southern Appalachia I am conceiving a space where the land itself and the memories I hold of it are preserved.

I create installations that represent the tangled webs and porous boundaries between land, water, time, and bodies. It is a way to remember the resiliency of these things that move in circles, cycles, and seasons. My installations and the process of making my work is a way to record the past and have hope for the future.