Mary Barringer

1950Born Wilmington, Delaware (?)

EDUCATION

1968Sculpture, Summer School, Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, New York

1968-1972BA Ceramics, Bennington College, Bennington, Vermont

APPRENTICESHIPS AND RESIDENCIES

UnknownHaystack Mountain School of Craft, Deer Isle, Maine

UnknownPenland School of Crafts, Penland, North Carolina

UnknownArrowmont School of Art and Crafts, Gatlinburg, Tennessee

1988, 1990Visiting Artist, Watershed Center for Ceramic Arts, North Edgecomb, Maine

PRIMARY WORK EXPERIENCE

1973—Independent Studio Artist

1982-1988Lecturer in ceramics, Greater Hartford Community College, Hartford, Connecticut

1993-1994Visiting Lecturer, Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio

2003-2013Editor, Studio Potter journal

Mary Barringer is known for functional pots meant to be used for preparing and serving food. Barringer's works incorporate her belief that the surface technique needs to be integral to a pot’s construction and not only its appearance. She uses multiple layers of glaze and slip that are scratched, stained and sanded resulting in the integration of the surface decoration with the clay beneath.  Occasionally Barringer creates sculptural forms. 

While at Bennington College, Barringer studied with Stanley Rosen who encouraged her to visit other clay studios and working potters. Barringer visited artists around the United States including Karen Karnes, Dave Shaner, Ken Ferguson, Ralph Bacerra, Robert Arneson and Michael Frimkess. In the summer 1971, Barringer returned as an apprentice to Frimkess' studio in Venice, California. After college Barringer moved to Hartford, Connecticut and a few months later set up her first pottery studio, Park Street Potters. In the late 1980s Barringer moved to Shelbourne Falls, Massachusetts where she lives and continues to work. In addition to her studio work she has written and lectured on ceramic history and was the editor of Studio Potter journal from 2003 to 2013.

An interview with Mary Barringer conducted November 20-21, 2011 by Sequoia Miller, for the Bard Graduate Center's Craft, Art and Design Oral History Project is available at:
http://www.bgccraftartdesign.org/items/show/15.