Pre-conference events
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October 7, 9am - 11am
Meridian Museum of Art 628 25th Avenue, Meridian, MS 
Terry Cherry
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October 7, 11:30am - 1pm
MAEX (Mississippi Arts + Entertainment Experience) 2155 Front Street, Meridian, MS 39301 
Holley Rumbarger
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October 7, 1:30pm-3:30pm
MAEX (Mississippi Arts + Entertainment Experience) 2155 Front Street, Meridian, MS 39301 
Allen Chen
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Meet the artists
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Terry CherryEven though I’m largely self-taught in clay as art, my work is informed by my study in design as a watercolorist and community college art instructor. I like to read a lot. After inheriting a wheel and kiln from a discontinued industrial arts program at East Mississippi Community College, I checked out a book on pottery from the school library and started learning to throw. I had a lot of clay on that book when I returned it, but they didn’t fine me except for the late return charges.
Randy Shoults and David Frank are probably the biggest influences in what I do with clay. Kate and I bought our first clay art pieces from them. That first lidded jar we bought from David when we were newly married, both in college, and financially challenged, set the tone for my aesthetic in clay. Randy was always a wealth of knowledge in throwing, glazing and Raku for me. They were both very encouraging friends, too. Throwing pottery on the wheel is active meditation for me. I find it very relaxing. I love the symmetry of wheel-thrown pieces but also sometimes enjoy altering them away from that symmetry. I have made a few glazes myself but am most interested in the form, which seems odd to me since I’ve been a painter so long. I am happy to get the opportunity to demonstrate my slant on wheel-throwing at Meridian Museum of Art as part of the MS Clay Conference. |
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Holley RumbargerHolley is a music performer from Hattiesburg, and here is she in her own words.
I was born into this world to play music, but more locationally, I was born in the south. My roots in music link back to a rusty 1984 Jeep Grand Cherokee, a couple of Alison Krauss CDs, perhaps a gas station frozen coke paired with some boiled peanuts, and the Mississippi sun dancing through the windows into the back seat. I like to think my music defines my experiences in love and life in the deep south but knows no true genre. Perhaps something akin to folk or Americana. But I dabble in a cornucopia of sound, not limited to country or pop, soul or rock. My original music is intrinsically personal and ever-adaptive. Illustrative and illuminative of my life, love, losses, and lessons. I have a lifetime of singing experience, having come into the world wailing in 1992, as my mother said (and as some would say, never stopped), but in recent years felt a calling to stringed instruments, specifically guitar and mandolin. My life, like yours, is a journey; which, to me, would seem meaningless without song. |
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Allen ChenAllen Chen was born in Taiwan and immigrated to the U.S. at the age of 12 in the beautiful small town of Solvang, California. Allen Chen received a Master of Fine Arts degree in Studio Arts from the University of Notre Dame in 2009, and a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Spatial Arts from San Jose State University in 2005. He was an Artist in Residence at Mendocino Arts Center 2010, Red Lodge Clay Center 2011, and Lawrence Arts Center 2012.
Allen was an Assistant Professor and head of ceramics at Central State University from 2012~2014. Since 2014 Allen has been a professor at the University of Southern Mississippi. His teaching meshes research activities in traditional wheel-throwing, woodfire and experimental paper-clay, multi-medium installation ceramic techniques. Allen specializes in experimental paper/fiber-clay sculptural installations. |