Stephen F. Austin State University

NACOGDOCHES, TEXAS - Anita Powell, SFA assistant professor of art at Stephen F. Austin State University, has completed a fall artist residency at The Northern Clay Center in Minneapolis as a McKnight Fellowship artist.

During her residency, Powell completed 10 new ceramic pieces comprising four sculptures. The new pieces continue Powell's work with what she refers to as "dress form sculptures."

"In my previous work, each piece was solitary, and the images on the front and back related to one another to convey meaning," Powell said. "The work I created during the residency employs multiple individual pieces within one installation to create an expanded, more complex dialogue."

Each of Powell's sculptures is slab built and made with lowfire clay glaze and underglazes. Each piece is approximately 30 inches tall.

Powell was one of four mid-career artists chosen from outside Minnesota to participate in the 2005 residency program. The center also annually chooses two Minnesota residents to take part in the program. The work of all six artists will be on exhibit at the center from September to November 2006, and their work will be included in an annual catalog.

Powell has been a member of the SFA faculty since 2000. She earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Nebraska at Kearney and her Master of Fine Arts from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. Both degrees were in ceramics.

Last spring, one of her pieces was included in the Clay National Exhibition at the National Council for Education of Ceramic Arts conference in Baltimore, Md.

Her work has most recently traveled nationally with the 2003 Craft Houston National Exhibition, Houston Center for Contemporary Craft. The sculptor?s most recent one-woman shows were held at Southwest Texas State (now Texas State) University Art Gallery, Brookhaven College Art Gallery in Farmers Branch and Texas A & M University-Commerce Art Gallery.

Recent group exhibitions include the 2005 Mid-States Craft Exhibition at the Evansville (Ind.) Museum of Arts History and Science and "Viewpoint: Ceramics 2006" at Hyde Art Gallery in El Cajon, Calif. Powell?s work is included in collections by Jane Blaffer Owen, Linda Mock and Pat Dolan, Amaco Corporation and the Woodsmall Foundation in Indianapolis.