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(Dann Designs in Clay)
Mimi Semmes Dann designs and makes one-of-a-kind ceramic vessels that are both decorative and functional. The work is either wheel-thrown or hand-built. She is known for her thin-walled, sculptural porcelain bowls which exploit the fluidity, translucence and sensuousness of the medium.
Her unique glazes range from matt to crystalline. They have been developed through years of careful testing. Some of her formulas have been published in articles featuring her work in periodicals in this country and abroad. She fires in electric kilns to 2400 degrees.
A native Tennessean and graduate of Cornell University, the artist studied pottery and design at the Memphis College of Art and Arrowmont School of Crafts. After teaching ceramics at Lausanne Collegiate School and Memphis College of Art, she now works full time in her studio.
The recipient of numerous awards, she has exhibited extensively. Her ceramics have been shown in juried and invitational regional, national and international shows.
Her work has been sold in art galleries and fine craft shops from coast to coast. It is included in public and private collections in this country and throughout the world, such as those of Presidents Reagan and Bush, and several American Embassies.
"My aim is to create objects which communicate the sense of wonder and joy I experience in all of nature. I like making shapes and glazes that evoke leaves, flowers, mushrooms, sea life, gem crystals and snowflakes. I want my forms to be beautiful to a traditionalist or a non-traditionalist, to an educated person or an uneducated one, now and in the future.
I prefer making functional forms because of the intimacy and feeling of communication which comes with having my work touched and enjoyed by other people in their daily lives. I believe that it is more important for me to create a work of art that can perform a function - in addition to the aesthetic one - than a work of art which cannot.
My favorite medium is porcelain. To me porcelain has a sensuous appeal, both in its wet state when it is so responsive to shaping fingers and its fired state when its glazed surface feels so buttery and resounds, bell-like, when struck. The interaction of color and form is important to me. When I get it right, the sense of wonder never grows old."
6246 Green Meadows
Memphis, TN 38120
(901) 685-0253
(901) 685-0253
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