Carolyn Di Fiori Hopkins

Gesture Toward the Earth, Second Surface

The pottery vessels and Pompeii-inspired figures in my work reflect a deep personal connection to the time I spent in Italy, where the ancient world feels remarkably close—etched into stone, buried beneath ash, held in the shape of a vessel. These forms echo the stillness of the ruins, the silence of time passing, and the resilience of the handmade object. My work is also grounded in the legacy of the major ceramic artists who shaped the field in the 1970s, when I studied under pioneers like William Daley and Rudy Staffel. Their reverence for form, surface, and the symbolic language of clay has never left me. Now, decades later, I find myself returning to clay—hand-building new pieces and actively sketching ideas for future vessels. The forms in my current work appear as both artifacts and metaphors—containers of memory, time, and presence.