Wyoming Arts Council

Margo's Pottery will feature Delores Fortuna's "beautiful, utilitarian" porcelain this summer

Featured News | March 31, 2014

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From a Margo’s Pottery press release:

Margo’s Pottery and Fine Crafts in Buffalo is featuring the porcelain pottery of Delores Fortuna this summer.  Delores Fortuna’s studio is in Galena, Illinois, off a dirt road in a cedar woods.  She also teaches at the School of Art Institute in Chicago.  She says that this life “allows me to watch wild turkeys while I throw and still be able to share a lifetime of information with a great group of students.”  Her work starts with basic wheel thrown shapes as starting points.  These shapes are often altered.  Here’s how she describes it, “The clay wall becomes a fabric, a diary rich with gestural marks and intent.  As a seamstress would cut, fold, and dart cloth to make a garment, I use this clay fabric to shape utilitarian vessels.  These vessels ask questions, explore solutions and live in you home.”

These porcelain vessels are fired to 2374 degrees Fahrenheit, in a gas-reducing fiber kiln.  This temperature vitrifies the porcelain clay and the glazes, and all pieces are food safe, microwavable and dishwashing stable. “The pieces are beautiful to look at, but also entirely functional,” says gallery owner Margo Brown.

Ruth Duckworth at the University of Chicago taught Fortuna at both the graduate and undergraduate levels, and has remained a great influence on her work.  She also has been inspired by Hans Coper, Lucie Rie and the color theories of Josef Albers.  Delores Fortuna carries on the teaching tradition with workshops as well as her work at the Art Institute.  This year, she is teaching at ParklandCollege in Champaign, Illinois as well as at the Kansas City Potters Guild.  She shows widely as well.  In 2014, she was featured in fifteen separate art shows including at the Clay Studio in Philadelphia, at the AKAR Gallery in Iowa City, Iowa and at the Lill Street Gallery during the NCECA (National Council for the Education of Ceramics Art) conference in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.  Margo’s Pottery and Fine Crafts is pleased to do a one person exhibit of her work here this summer.

The opening for the show is on Friday, May 30, from 5-7 p.m.  The public is invited and Fortuna will be on hand to answer questions.  The show will continue through Saturday, August 16, and the gallery will be open seven days a week during this time.

For more information, please call Margo Brown at 307-684-9406 or e-mail margospottery@wyoming.com. Our website is MargosPottery.com.

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