Susan Harris

American, b. 1945

Now retired, Susan Harris was a professor of art and design at Southern Utah University, where, since 1996, she taught ceramics and sculpture. She received a BA in anthropology from the University of Illinois, and an MFA in ceramics from Utah State University. In 1990, she taught for a year at the Kansas City Art Institute with Ken Ferguson (see Ferguson’s Bottle) and for a year at USU with John Neely.
Harris' ceramic work evolves from her long-held fascination with artifacts from the past, most notably ancient oriental and Etruscan bronze ritual vessels. She is preoccupied with the mysterious purposes, intricate surface details and mythological symbols, which characterize these objects. Using clay instead of metal, not to mention a contemporary rather than ancient temperament, she challenges herself to re-interpret their forms and meanings.