The Snake Will Always get the Eggs. Ceramics, 2.5" x 8" x 17" 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. Throughout my work, I hope to challenge the human perspective of control, separation, and domination over nature which has bled into so much of what we perceive. I portray intimate relationships between plants and animals and the resiliency that can be found within landscapes. I am interested in the subtle and cyclical changes in land as well as untangling the grief around more dramatic changes due to development, habitat loss, and climate change which will only intensify in years to come. 

I also seek to examine the structural parallels between ecological destruction and the domination of feminine bodies. There is a paradox of where there is abundance, there arises a threat to that abundance. In the power, sexuality, and creativity of femininity and womanhood there is paradise, beauty, and love but it lives under the constant threat of violence, shame, envy, and desire for possession.

My installations 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.