Artist: Dehmie Dehmlow

Dehmie Dehmlow, KANSAS
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Bio
Dehmie Dehmlow grew up in Denver, Colorado. She makes pottery and mixed media modular sculptures that tell stories using layers of texture and color, found materials, ceramics, and other fabricated objects. She has been teaching ceramics and sculpture for 4 years. In addition to ceramics, Dehmie's background is in caregiving for elderly and adults with disabilities. She earned her BA in Ceramics and Pre-Medical Sciences from Colorado State University. Dehmie was a ceramics intern at Anderson Ranch Arts Center in Colorado before she was selected as the 2019 Salad Days Artist in Residence at Watershed Center for Ceramic Arts in Maine. Dehmie then completed a Post-Baccalaureate program at Louisiana State University. She received her MFA from University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 2022 and then completed a residency at PrattMWP in New York. She is currently the Ceramic Artist in Residence at Lawrence Arts Center in Kansas. Dehmie enjoys being outside with her dog, Hadlee, and observing the world and people around her.

Artist Statement
My work is empowered by intuition and imagination and is based in storytelling. I build sculptures and pottery using a strong compositional and formal sensibility as a guide. My practice as an interdisciplinary artist making modular sculpture engages in thought processes that deploy forms of reclamation. My assemblages emphasize potential as a form of agency and vitality. Potential is held in the salvaged materials, fragmented objects, and fabricated components I collect, create and construct with. I imagine a new collaborative life with these parts, using them to fill needs within the whole of a sculpture. Similarly, I approach composition in a wholistic manner when making pottery. I enjoy working within the parameters that making pots provides. With a focus on slab building and layered surfaces, the pots I make engage the viewer with emotive depth in texture and composition. A sense of urgency and play exists within the sculptures and pottery I make. Within my modular sculptures, precarious relationships and implied function create and reinforce moments of familiarity and play. This type of tension and balance show up in the way I combine organic and rigid formal qualities and the dynamic use of color in my pots. The care and attention I give to each material and layer of my work is a declaration of value. My work hinges on inviting people to think differently about materials, forms, and their function. Ideally, this alternative way of thinking leads a viewer to rediscover their own reality.

Often my work takes off from moments of experiencing decaying architectural structures. Their details directly inform my work and are often repeated and abstracted in the surfaces and forms of my pots. These moments exist as space for reciprocal moments of buoyancy. These architectural structures and I, skinned in emotive layers of texture, carry our aging is a record. Suspended in time we float, embracing the volume, and weight of what has been built up and broken down. This accumulation, a form of growth. We exist with the ability to crumble, grasping at final shreds of life. These moments become a unit of my survival that can be mobilized in my studio. My pots exist as a visual and formal distillation of my experience of the aged architectural structures I find so beautiful.

In positions of desperation and urgency we can be driven to work with our reality, imagining a new existence for the abject. When faced with a state of loss, ruin, scarcity, and/or oppression, our tenacity to adapt, reach, grab, and rebuild is miraculous and almost incomprehensible. There is wonder and desperation in what becomes a building block and where we find material and immaterial bricks to lay.

Education
2022 MFA, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE
2019 Post-Baccalaureate, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA
2014 BA in Ceramics & Pre-Medical Sciences, Magna Cum Laude, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO
2013 QMAP, First Aid, CPR, Mary Ann Kelleher, RN, Fort Collins, CO
2011 Certified Nursing Assistant Certification, Columbine Health Systems, Fort Collins, CO

Residencies
2023-2024 Artist in Residence, Lawrence Arts Center, Lawrence, KS
2022-2023 Artist in Residence, PrattMWP, Utica, NY
2018 Salad Days Artist in Residence, Watershed Center for Ceramic Arts, Newcastle, ME

Exhibitions
2024 Invited artist: CLAYFEST, Saratoga, NY
2024 Invitational show: FEAST, Lawrence, KS
2024 Consigned artist: Good Habit Pottery, NCECA, Richmond VI
2024 Group show: CXC: CRISSCROSS, NCECA, Richmond, VI
2024 ClayAkar: Yunomi Invitational, Iowa City, IA
2024 Invited artist: Midwest Pottery Fest, KCUP, Kansas City MO
2023 Solo Invitational: Mug of the Month, Belger Arts, Kansas City, MO
2023 Juried Show: Art of The Cup, GoggleWorks Center for the Arts, Reading, PA
2023 Solo Exhibition: “Keep Going”, Wooten Clayworks, Hackettstown, NJ
2023 Invitational Group Show: CXC: CRISSCROSS, Back at It, NCECA, Cincinnati, OH
2023 Solo Exhibition: I’m Still Here, Artist in Residence Exhibition, Fountain Elms Gallery, PrattMWP, Utica, NY
2022 Solo Exhibition: Brick-Collage, MFA Thesis, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE
2021 Invitational Group Show: CXC: CRISSCROSS, So Busy, So Behind, online
2021 Juried Invitational: Above Board Exhibition, Above Board Ceramics, New Haven, CT
2021 Juried Invitational: Last Call VI Show, Companion Gallery, Humboldt, TN
2020 Solo Exhibition: Spreading Out, Medici Gallery, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE
2020 Juried Invitational: Material Mugs V: UNDERGLAZE, Companion Gallery, Humboldt, TN
2019 Group Exhibition: C3 - Cultivating Ceramic Collaboration, LUX Center for the Arts, Lincoln, NE
2019 Juried Invitational: Americano Invitational, ClayAkar, Iowa City, IA
2019 Emerging Artist Exhibition (One of 3 artists selected nationally), Clay Studio, Philadelphia, PA
2019 Solo Exhibition: Salad Days, Watershed Center for Ceramic Arts, Newcastle, ME
2019 Group Exhibition: Here We Are: Post-Baccalaureate Show, 841 Gallery, Baton Rouge, LA
2019 Juried Invitational: Dirty South Cup Show, Juror: Doug Peltzman, River Oaks Square Arts Center,

Alexandria, LA
2019 Group show: CXC: CRISSCROSS, Here For This, NCECA, Minneapolis, MN
Professional and Special Skills
Kiln Building Gas kiln Firing Glaze Chemistry/Formulation
Salt Kiln Firing Wood Kiln firing Electric Kiln Repair/Maintenance
Electric Kiln Firing Slip casting Wheel Repair/Maintenance
Soda Kiln firing Mold Making Emotional Intelligence & Communication Skills

Museum Acquisitions
2023 Watering Can, Ceramic sculptural vessel, Munson Museum, Utica, NY
2023 The Coat Hook, Modular mixed media wall assemblage, Munson Museum, Utica, NY

Artist Talks/Lectures
2022 (Repeatedly) University of Nebraska Lincoln, Lincoln NE
2023 (Fall and spring) PrattMunson Museum, Utica, NY
2024 (Repeatedly) Lawrence Arts Center, Lawrence, KS

Representation & Gallery Partnerships
2023-Ongoing Wooten Clayworks, Hackettstown, NJ
2023 Clay To Table, Artist Collective, Online
2023-Ongoing Santangelo, Thomas, WV
2022-Ongoing PrattMWP Museum of Art, Utica, NY
2022-Ongoing Good Habit Pottery, Online Gallery
2019 The Clay Studio, Philadelphia, PA
2017-Ongoing Anderson Ranch Arts Center, Snowmass Village, CO
2016-2019 Starry Night Expresso Cafe, Fort Collins, CO

Honors, Fellowships, Grants and Awards
2020, 2021 Graduate Student Scholarly and Creative Activity Grant, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE
2021, 2021 Trickey Graduate Award for Artistic Creativity and Achievement, University of Nebraska Lincoln, Lincoln, NE
2020, 2021 Richard Trickey Fellowship, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE
2019-2021 Edgren Fellowship, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE
2019-2021 Meyers & Martha H. Cather Fellowship, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE
2019-2021 Hixson-Lied Fellowship, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE

Community Involvement
2023-2024 Highschool Ceramic Workshops, LAC, Lawrence, KS
2022-2023 “Art Alive”, Family Museum Days, PrattMWP, Utica, NY

Teaching Experience
o Dallas Wooten Clayworks, Hackettstown, NJ
2023 “Colorful Shapes & Layers” - 2 day workshop
o Lawrence Arts Center, Lawrence, KS
Fall 2023 – Fall 2024 Community Arts, Adult Education Instructor, 6 sessions, 2 classes each session:
Beginning wheel throwing, beginning hand building, advanced hand building, mold making, studio hacks (kilns, glaze
chemistry, etc.)
o PrattMunson Art Institute, Utica, NY:
2023 Community Arts, Adult Education Instructor, Intermediate/Advanced Ceramics: “Construction and
Composition”
2023 Adjunct Faculty (Spring), Beginning Ceramics: Wheel-Throwing and Hand-Building
2022 Community Arts Education Instructor, Intermediate/Advanced Ceramics: “Volumetric Forms”
2022 Adjunct Faculty, Foundations/Sculpture: 3D-Design
o University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE:
2022 Independent Study Instructor (Spring), Ceramics: Intermediate Hand-Building
2022 Instructor of Record (Spring), Ceramics: Beginning Hand-Building
2021 Instructor of Record (Fall), Ceramics: Beginning Hand-Building
2021 Adjunct Faculty (Summer), Ceramics: Beginning Wheel-Throwing
2021 Teaching Assistant (Spring), Ceramics: Beginning Hand-Building
2020 Instructor of Record (Fall), Foundations/Sculpture: 3-D Design
2020 Instructor of Record (Spring), Ceramics: Beginning Wheel-Throwing
2019 Teaching Assistant (Fall), Foundations/Sculpture: 3-D Design
2019 Teaching Assistant (Fall), Ceramics: Beginning Wheel-Throwing
o LUX Center for the Arts, Lincoln, NE:
2021 Youth Ceramics Instructor, Wheel Throwing and Hand Building

Professional Experience - Art
2019-2022 Gas and Electric Kiln Technician, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE
2019-2022 Pottery Wheel Technician, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE
2020-2021 President, Clay Club student organization, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE
2020 Gallery Manager, Medici Gallery, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE
2018-2019 Studio and Workshop Assistant, Mikey Walsh, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA
2017-2018 Ceramics Intern, Anderson Ranch Arts Center, Snowmass Village, CO
2017-2018 Studio Assistant, Giselle Hicks, Snowmass Village, CO
2017-2018 Studio Assistant, Doug Casebeer, Carbondale, CO

Professional Experience - Caregiving
2018-2019 Home Care Provider, Baton Rouge, LA
2015-2017 Direct Care Giver for Adults with Disabilities, CHILL LLC, Fort Collins, CO
2013-2014 Patient Care Technician, Hartshorne Health Network, CSU, CO
2012-2015 Certified Nursing Assistant, Columbine West Skilled Nursing Facility, Fort Collins, CO
2010-2015 Home Care Provider, Denver, CO and Fort Collins, CO
2011 Patient Care Technician and Intake Manager, The Little Clinic, Denver, CO