DAVIE RENEAU, CAMPELLSVILLE UNIVERSITY ART PROFESSOR, TO
HOLD CERAMICS ART SHOW JAN. 19-FEB. 5

By Joan C. McKinney, news and publications coordinator

 

CAMPBELLSVILLE, Ky. - Davie Reneau, assistant professor of art at Campbellsville University, will hold an art show of wood-fired, functional ceramics Jan. 19-Feb. 5, 2010 in the Art Gallery at 205 University Drive, Campbellsville.

Reneau of Glasgow will give a slide talk at 4 p.m. Jan. 27 in room 102 in the Art Building with a reception in the Art Gallery from 5 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. following the talk.

The public is invited to the talk, reception and show free of charge.

Reneau is one of four Americans chosen to participate in the Mashiko International Ceramics in Mashiko, Japan in 2006. In 2001, she received a fellowship through the Sister Cities Artist Exchange Program to travel to Japan for workshop and slide lectures.

In 2009, Reneau participated in the American Pottery Festival at the Northern Clay Center in Minneapolis, Minn. In 2008, she participated in the National Yunomi Invitational at Akar Gallery in Iowa City, Iowa and at the National Teapot Invitational in Ceder Creek Gallery in Creedmoor, N.C.

She also has served as a panelist/exhibitor at the International Wood-Firing Conference in Flagstaff, Ariz., in 2006 and at the International Wood-Fire Conference in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, in 2004.

She won the “Best of Show” in 2003 at the Functional Review at The Clay Studio of Missoula, Missoula, Mont.; and the “Best of Show” in 2001 at The Hand Held Cup Show at Odyssey Gallery in Asheville, N.C.

She received her bachelor of fine arts degree from Western Kentucky University in 1985 and her master of fine arts degree in 1995 from West Virginia University.

Born and reared in Glasgow, Ky., Reneau spent summers before and during graduate school as a studio assistant at Penland School of Crafts in North Carolina and Arrowmont Craft School in Tennessee.

Reneau said her ceramic pots have always involved the rituals of food presentation and storage. “I've always had an immense respect for the history and tradition, required mastery of skill and intimate relationship with the user, commanded by functional pots.”

For the last ten years, she has fired her pots primarily in wood kilns. “I am attracted to spontaneous as deposits, flashing and the beauty of naked clay exposed to raw flame,” she said.

She said she enjoys being physically involved in the firing process, “not just doing passive turn-ups on a gas or electric kiln.”

She said she even likes spending days cutting, hauling and stacking wood. “They are as comfortable and familiar to me as the long, hot days I spent as a child working in my dad's tobacco and hay fields.”

“There is an honesty and purity in intense physical labor directed toward an ultimate goal. This is the spirit I want my work to exhibit.”

The Art Gallery is open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday-Friday.

Campbellsville University is a private, comprehensive institution located in South Central Kentucky. Founded in 1906, Campbellsville University is affiliated with the Kentucky Baptist Convention and has an enrollment of 3,006 students who represent 97 Kentucky counties, 30 states and 37 foreign nations. Listed in U.S.News & World Report's 2010 “America's Best Colleges,” CU is ranked 23rd in “Best Baccalaureate Colleges” in the South, tied for fifth in “most international students” and fourth in “up-and-coming” schools in baccalaureate colleges in the South. CU has been ranked 17 consecutive years with U.S.News & World Report. The university has also been named to America's Best Christian Colleges® and to G.I. Jobs magazine as a Military Friendly School. Campbellsville University is located 82 miles southwest of Lexington, Ky., and 80 miles southeast of Louisville, Ky. Dr. Michael V. Carter is in his 11th year as president.