Dandelion Wishes explores the fleeting condition of nature and its impression on our memories. There are times in one's life it can be nearly impossible to walk by a dandelion without plucking it and scattering its seeds on the breath of your wish. The natural world can charm us into reflection and these are the moments cast upon the surfaces of Sheppard’s and Reese’s ceramic work. This exhibit will explore the idea of nature in personal stories, memories, and dreams.

Styles of Expression

The work of ceramic artists Patty Sheppard and Ruth Ann Reese shares a similar palette and attention to decorative detail and sculptural relief. They depict a casual but intimate relationship with the natural world. Patty Sheppard creates vessel-related forms inspired by the gestural qualities of foliage, insects, and wildflowers and their fleeting beauty. Ruth Reese creates highly lyrical surfaces with figurative elements and text adjacent to a beautifully translated natural world of her own making. Sheppard’s pieces focus on function while Reese’s work recognizes the plastic and sculptural aspects of clay.

Artist Biography

Patty Sheppard received her BFA degree from Southwest Missouri State University in Springfield, MO (1989) and her MFA in Ceramics from Washington University in Saint Louis, Missouri in 1993. She is currently an adjunct instructor at Saint Louis Community College-Meramec and has taught at St. Charles Community College, The St. Louis Art Museum and Craft Alliance. Her nature-inspired objects, primarily ceramics, have been exhibited for years in regional galleries in the Midwest, as well as at her first solo exhibition in 2008 at the Ethical Society in St. Louis.

Ruth Ann Reese received her BFA in English Literature from Loyola University and MFA in Ceramics from Washington University in Saint Louis, Missouri. She is currently an adjunct instructor at Saint Louis Community College-Meramec. She has shown works in several group shows and participated in outreach projects, including the Community Advent Quilt. Of her work, Reese says, “I trust the materials that I bring into the art-making process. With careful attention, I try to wade through my personal perception of these physical substances to find a more universal understanding of them. I believe that in this work, as in the world at large, the spirit twines with the temporal.”