About Us

2021 Artists

The Artist Residency Program is designed to offer time and space for craft artists to focus on their creative work and interact with the public. The program supports emerging, mid-career, and established artists working in all craft media, including but not limited to clay, fiber, glass, metal, wood and mixed media. Museum visitors have the unique opportunity to visit the artists’ studios and watch the artists at work. Interacting with the resident artists is a great way to learn about a range of craft processes and techniques. In turn, the artists receive a unique opportunity to gain exposure, make connections with the Houston community, and help educate the public about craft.

Photo by: Rebecca Dobler-Chale.

Priscilla Dobler Dzul

Medium: Mixed Media

Residency:

December 1, 2021 –

February 28, 2022

Priscilla Dobler Dzul is an interdisciplinary storyteller, who creates multimedia installations in wood, textiles, ceramics, food, and paintings. Her work is focused on reframing the context of America’s prideful nationalism and colonization of indigenous cultures, while critiquing identity and examining the structures of power in the domestic realm.

Dobler Dzul’s work has been exhibited domestically and internationally. Most recently, she has shown at Project for Empty Space, Newark, NJ; A.I.R Gallery, Brooklyn, NY; Consulate of Mexico, Seattle, WA; The Northwest African American Museum, Seattle, WA; NARS Foundation, Brooklyn, NY; 125 Maiden Lane, NYC, NY; Olympic Sculpture Park, Seattle, WA; King Street Station, Seattle, WA; The Orange County Center for Contemporary Art, Santa Ana, CA and Decentered Gallery, Puebla, Mexico. In addition, she was a 2014 recipient of Grants for Artist Projects from the Artist Trust, 2015 Bailey Award, 2016 Edwin T. Pratt Scholarship, 2017 & 2021 Tacoma Artist Initiative Program Grantee, and 2021 Puffin Foundation Awardee. Since 2016, she has completed seven successful artist residencies on full fellowships. She received her MFA in sculpture from the State University of New York at New Paltz in 2013.

Learn more about her work at http://priscilladoblerart.com/.

Photo by: Angie Ollman.

Kerianne Quick

Medium: Metal

Residency:

December 1, 2021 –

February 28, 2022

Kerianne Quick is a Californian craftsperson and associate professor of jewelry and metalwork at San Diego State University. Quick received her Bachelor of Arts in applied design from SDSU, and her Master of Fine Arts in metal from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. She has received numerous grants, including a Kinley Fellowship and SDSU University Project Grants. Quick co-founded and edits the zine/journal CRAFT DESERT with professor Adam John Manley (SDSU), does curatorial projects under Secret Identity Projects with professor Jess Tolbert (UTEP), and is the co-author of the (Affective) Craft Manifesto. Highlights from her exhibition record include those at the Museum of Art and Design (NYC), Museo Franz Mayer (CDMX), the National Museum for Women in the Arts (D.C.), Salon del Mobile (Milan), and Design Week Amsterdam. Quick’s work is included in the collections of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; and the Netherlands Design Museum (Stedelijk). Her research is rooted in exploring craft as cultural phenomena, with an emphasis on jewelry and personal adornment. At HCCC, Quick will work on a new series exploring the intimate bonds of friendship and the impact of physical separation spurred by the pandemic.

Learn more about her work at https://kerianne-quick.com/.

Photo courtesy of artist.

Joan Brown

Medium: Clay

Residency:

September 1, 2021 –

May 31, 2022

A ceramic artist who most recently lived in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Joan Brown frequently uses porcelain, a material that helps her represent purity, delicacy, and fragility. This clay body allows her to mimic soft and supple flesh by creating highly detailed manipulations of surface that force the material to become something it is not. By stretching the limits of porcelain’s physical properties, Joan’s work symbolizes many of the complexities of femininity, as defined by both herself and by society. At HCCC, she hopes to expand upon this body of work and continue to develop visual representations of the injustices women face in contemporary cultures. In addition to cultivating her own personal growth, she hopes to be a part of and assist in fostering a community-oriented studio environment that is positive and welcoming.

Joan received her BFA, concentrating in ceramics, from the University of the Arts in 2013 and her MFA, concentrating in ceramics, from Bowling Green University in 2018. In 2020, she completed a two-year residency at University of the Arts, during which time she expounded on her thesis exhibition, Seductive Constrictions. Joan has shown work in Japan, New Orleans, Washington, Ohio and Pennsylvania, including a solo show in 2019, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Learn more about Brown’s work at www.joanclarebrown.com.

Photo by Haileigh Angelle.

Carl Johnson

Medium: Fiber

Residency:

September 1, 2021 –

November 30, 2021

Originally from Washington, D.C., Carl Johnson works in the medium of fiber arts, with a specialty in weaving. He has always had a love for math and logistics and constantly finds himself counting and calculating in his head. Johnson received his BFA in Fibers in 2021 from The Savannah College of Art and Design and is a recipient of the 2021 Windgate Lamar Fellowship. Recently, he has shown his work in shows such as Art Fields, Moving Fiber Show, and Shades of Grey and was featured in Not Real Art’s Q+Art. He believes that he is meant to create and follow his own path as an artist, as he continues to find tangible solutions to the ideas in his mind. Learn more about Johnson’s work at https://www.carljohnsonstudio.com/home.

Carl’s residency is generously underwritten by Molly and Jim Crownover.

Photo courtesy of the artist.

Nash Quinn

Medium: Metal

Residency:

September 1, 2021 –

May 31, 2022

Nash Quinn is a metalsmith who specializes in pattern-formed enameled vessels and small-scale mechanisms. Originally from Wyoming, he received his BFA from the University of Wyoming and his MFA from Edinboro University of Pennsylvania. He works with a variety of traditional materials, including copper, enamel, and sterling silver, and his work is about joy–the simple joy he experiences in design, process, and craft. He hopes that the objects he makes can carry that joy, and transmit a bit of it to others. At HCCC, he plans to explore the boundaries of the pattern-formed-vessel format.

Quinn teaches, lectures, and exhibits his work at craft schools, jewelry academies, and universities nationwide. He was a professor of jewelry and metalsmithing at Rowan University and Munson Williams Proctor Arts Institute and has taught workshops at Peters Valley School of Craft, Creative Side Jewelry Academy, and Haystack Mountain School of Craft, among many others. His work has been featured in exhibitions, including 40 Under 40: The Next Generation, at the National Ornamental Metal Museum; Imagine Peace Now, created by Boris Bally; as well as Philadelphia: Then and Now 1950-2019 and RINGS!, both organized by Helen Drutt. Learn more about Quinn’s work at www.nashquinn.com.

Headshot: Photo by Brianna Shimer.

Naomi Peterson

Medium: Clay

Residency:

August 1, 2021 –

November 30, 2021

Utilizing material and process, Naomi Peterson creates contexts between objects to better understand and define the connections between seemingly disparate things. Integrating both analog and digital methods such as hand building, laser cutting, knitting, 3D printing, and felting, Peterson explores what craft means in the digital age. Her handcrafted, ornate pedestals represent the gravity of a perceived circumstance, such as making a promise. Trust, like a ceramic object, can be broken as well as repaired, though the result will most certainly be altered. Through these contexts, she examines her own experiences and observations in building relationships facilitated by objects and rituals. While in residence at HCCC, Peterson plans to expand on these investigations into subject-object relationships through bodies of work composed of functional and participatory elements.

Peterson received her MFA in ceramics at the University of North Texas in 2021 and her BFA in ceramics at the University of Wyoming in 2017. She was a Post-baccalaureate in ceramics at the University of Wyoming for the 2017 – 2018 academic year and participated in the annual, short-term, Neltje artist-in-residence program in 2018. Peterson has exhibited nationally; recently, her work was on display at Gandee Gallery in Fabius, New York, as part of the 2021 National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts (NCECA) Gallery Expo. In November of 2021, she will participate in a group exhibition, titled Women, Art, and Technology, at the Fort Worth Community Arts Center, curated by Eliza Au.

To learn more about Peterson’s work, visit https://www.naomipeterson.com.

Photo courtesy of the artist.

Michael Velliquette

Medium: Paper

Residency:

June 1, 2021 –

August 31, 2021

A working artist for 20 years, Velliquette has participated in over 150 exhibitions in museums and galleries in the US, Europe, and Asia. His work is in the permanent collections of the Chazen Museum of Art; the San Antonio Museum of Art; the Art Museum of South Texas; the Racine Art Museum; and The Microsoft Collection. He has participated in numerous residencies and cultural exchange programs, including the Artpace International Artist-in-Residence; the John Michael Kohler Art/Industry program; and EUARCA, Kassel, Germany. Velliquette is a member of the Paper Artist Collective—a global community of artists and designers dedicated to the medium of paper. His work is represented by the David Shelton Gallery in Houston. He is currently a faculty associate at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. To learn more, visit https://www.velliquette.com/.

Photo courtesy of the artist.

Chloe Darke

Medium: Metal

Residency:

June 1, 2021 –

August 31, 2021

Chloe Darke is originally from Groveland, Massachusetts. Her work combines traditional metalsmithing techniques with nontraditional media, including silicone, cultivated fungal colonies, and sound installation. Her pieces, which reference an assortment of instruments and surgical tools of the past, are centered on the activities that take place in a fictional laboratory or examination room. The objects have no specific function and are fantastical, ambiguous, and/or impractical. She looks forward to continuing to explore these ideas in her residency at HCCC, as well as connecting with the greater arts community of Houston.

Darke received her Master of Fine Arts in metalsmithing and jewelry from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in May, 2019, and her Bachelor of Fine Arts in metalsmithing and jewelry from Maine College of Art in May, 2011. From 2011 – 2016, she was employed as a silversmith at Old Newbury Crafters in Amesbury, Massachusetts, where she and her coworkers were featured in “Forge,” an episode of the PBS television series, Craft in America. After graduating with her masters, Darke was a lecturer in the Metals and Contemporary Art Jewelry department at the University of Wisconsin-Stout for the 2019-2020 academic year. Currently, she is based in Upperville, Virginia, and is the metals studio assistant at Ayrshire Farm. Her work was recently on display in Contemporary Connections: Mastery in Metal, at the Lauren Rogers Museum of Art; Disrupt, at the Craft Council of British Columbia; and Object Permanence, at the Baltimore Jewelry Center. To learn more, visit https://chloedarke.com/home.html.

Photo Courtesy of the artist.

Stephanie Robison

Medium: Fiber

Residency:

May 1, 2021 –

July 31, 2021

The sculpture of Stephanie Robison plays with multiple oppositional relationships. Working with industrial fabrics and wood, she creates large-scale installations that examine relationships between culture, nature, and the built environment. Her latest series of work combines traditional stone carving and the process of needle felting wool. By merging incongruous materials such as wool and marble, she works to synthesize and fuse: organic and geometric, natural and architectural, handmade and the uniform industrial. Focusing on materiality and color with this new work, Robison creates charming, often humorous or awkward forms referencing aspects of the body, relationships, and the environment. While in residence at HCCC, Robison plans to expand her current body of work by gaining material knowledge through further exploration into needle felting and stone carving.

Originally from Oregon, Robison currently resides in California, where she teaches sculpture at the City College of San Francisco and serves as educational director for the California Sculptors Symposium. Robison holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Marylhurst University and a Master of Fine Arts in sculpture from the University of Oregon. Her work has been exhibited at Whatcom Museum and Tacoma Art Museum in Washington; Marin Museum of Contemporary Art and Orange County Center for Contemporary Art in California; Peter Robertson Gallery in Alberta, Canada; Yeiser Art Center in Kentucky; and Site:Brooklyn Gallery in New York. To learn more, visit http://www.stephanierobison.com/.

Abbie Preston Edmonson

Medium: Clay

Residency:

February 1, 2021 –

April 30, 2021

Abbie Preston Edmonson is an object maker. She is continually experimenting with ways to evoke a painterly surface on a three-dimensional object. Holding the tension between form and surface, Abbie’s ceramic pieces become a spontaneous layering process, with a nod to Abstract Expressionism, by exploring intuitive mark-making and gestural brushes of color. During her time at HCCC, Abbie will cultivate a new sculptural body of work exploring the theme of mental illness, focusing on narratives depicting darkness and isolation in hopes of inspiring open dialogue.

Abbie attended Valdosta State University in Georgia, graduating in 2009 with a BFA in ceramics and a secondary in painting. She was an artist-in-residence at Mudfire Studios in Atlanta from 2010-2011. Abbie is the owner and creator of Box Sparrow Studio, a Houston-based brand creating functional ceramics out of Hardy and Nance Street Studios. Recently, she was selected to participate in two celebrity design collaborations through Etsy. You can find her work locally at Forth and Nomad, The Flora Culture, and Manready Mercantile. Abbie is currently serving as vice president on the ClayHouston board and teaches wheel-throwing at Third Coast Clay. To learn more about her work, visit www.boxsparrowstudio.com.

Apply to the Artist Residency Program

The application for the 2025 – 2026 cycle opens January 1, 2025. It’s free to apply!

The Artist Residency Program is designed to offer time and space for craft artists to focus on their creative work and interact with the public. The program supports emerging, mid-career, and established artists working in all craft media, including but not limited to clay, fiber, glass, metal, wood and mixed media.

Apply to the Artist Residency Program

The application for the 2025 – 2026 cycle opens January 1, 2025. It’s free to apply!

The Artist Residency Program is designed to offer time and space for craft artists to focus on their creative work and interact with the public. The program supports emerging, mid-career, and established artists working in all craft media, including but not limited to clay, fiber, glass, metal, wood and mixed media.