About April
April Dupuis received her BFA (2004) in education from Anderson University and her Masters of Ceramics and Visual Arts from Ball State University (2006). April was the pottery studio assistant for potter John Peterson in Albany, IN (2005-2007) and her work was greatly inspired by learning from this amazing potters technique, studio practices, and the sgraffito technique. April has a passion for teaching others and founded The Potter’s Hands Studio in Indianapolis, IN, Memphis, TN, and Columbus, OH where she taught numerous adult pottery classes for 8 years and mentored pottery assistants.
April was commissioned to create 450 pieces for the elite restaurant Andrew Michael Italian Kitchen, Memphis TN for an Andrew Beard Foundation dinner for the restaurant's fabulous food to be served on. April currently has 2 studios set up in Olive Branch, MS and Como, MS where she enjoys creating meaningful work and custom commissions. She helps lead worship at her church and records videos of pottery making with worship music that inspires her to create the work. These can be seen on her Facebook and Instagram. She loves life and lives with her supportive husband JD and three children Micah, Ezra, and Evelyn.
April loves having her work for sale at the local gallery Bingham & Broad in the arts district of Memphis, TN. April enjoys being a member of The Memphis Potters Guild the local pottery guild group and has been showing work with them for 9 years.
‘Her gorgeous pottery is an absolute delight and inspires me each day I use it in my home.’
—Elizabeth
Artist Statement
My passion for clay and being a potter begins with the unlimited possibilities of a lump of clay and the transformation into a finished piece. My work is vessel based; platters and bowls some functional in nature, while others are vessels used as metaphors to convey the joys and struggles I have experienced in my walk of faith as a Christian. It is important that the viewer can feel and understand the movement and fluidity of the piece’s surface. The potter’s hands are essential in making this effect possible. The hands compress the imperfections and air bubbles from the piece in order to form a strong foundation on which the vessel can stand. The grand finale is completed when the hands manipulate, decorate, and finish the surface. What would the pot be without the potter’s hands? I see this idea as a metaphor in my own life and faith.
The majority of pieces in this exhibit are made of red stoneware or white clay bodies that are thrown on the potter’s wheel and covered with white porcelain slip. This slip is then textured using tools and hands to carve through the surface and into the clay body creating contrasting surfaces. In this way the work is framed around the expressive imagery I am trying to relay to the viewer. This technical process is called sgraffito.
The images I use come from my personal visual file of preferential images, consisting of forms and shapes that represent openness, honesty, growth and vulnerability. I use the radial symmetry of the lily, an open free flowing flower, because it represents growth and openness. This is a metaphor for the worship and openness in my Christian faith. Trees dance around the pieces embracing, each other on a firm foundation, uplifting one another, and growing towards an eternal goal. Intricate garden flowers in vivid colors ordain the surfaces as a reflection of new growth, unexpected joys, and splendor that is being revealed to me in my current work and life.
The bowls are adorned with slip, carvings, hand sculpted flowers, and texture that express the grace of brush strokes along with forms in nature that are figurative telling a story to complete the form. I have a great appreciation for pottery that is beautiful as well as functional in use. Although function is important, it does not hold precedence over the form and beauty of the piece.
After the pieces have been fired I apply earth pigments which impart color (oxides), into the sgraffito design and textures to accentuate the details of the surface. Next I apply underglazes and clear glaze which provide an array of colors. The pieces are then placed in an electric kiln where the clay and glazes melt, bond with the piece, and create a glassy, smooth surface.
It is my hope that the viewer of these pots can appreciate the function and feel the expressions that are revealed in my work. Hopefully this will draw the viewer into the work to reflect, understand, confront, or experience emotions that I hope to convey through my work in clay.