The North-West Ceramics Foundation is pleased to announce Heather Dahl as their next speaker at a free public lecture Wednesday, March 7, 2018, at 7:30 pm. The lecture will be held in the Rennie Theatre, room B2160, at Emily Carr University, 520 East 1st Ave, Vancouver, BC. All are welcome and encouraged to attend.

Heather Dahl studied ceramics and painting at the Emily Carr Institute of Art & Design, receiving her BFA in both media in 2001. After graduating, she worked at a community centre pottery studio and taught children’s classes. A self-employment program enabled her to transform her twin passions into a viable business, dahlhaus studio, which she launched in 2007. Dahlhaus is part of a ceramic co-op located in the Mergatroid Building in Vancouver, which is also home to glass-blowing and wood-working co-ops and individual artist studios. Dahl has marketed her work through museum gift shops and large retailers including Anthropologie, West Elm and Nordstrom. Her work has appeared in exhibitions across Canada and the United States and been showcased in numerous design and lifestyle magazines including Bon Appétit, Canadian House & Home, InStyle and Studio Magazine. In 2015, she was featured in Molly Hatch’s New Ceramic Surface Design.

Dahl draws her inspiration from mid-century modern and Scandinavian design, vintage wall paper and her own paintings. Using both porcelain and stoneware, she employs a variety of techniques including hand-throwing, slip-casting, painted and poured coloured slips and screen printing to create works that are both functional and decorative. Her lively surfaces exhibit a love of nature and an understanding of pattern and abstraction. As is pointed out in numerous sources, her work fits in well with contemporary interiors and is well-suited to modern life.

In her talk, Dahl will discuss her own experience as a professional working ceramist. She will address a variety of pertinent topics including finding and promoting an authentic voice in clay, working with retailers versus galleries, and learning how to price, promote and sell one’s work. She will reflect on her efforts to reconcile the demands of the market with her own creative instincts, as well as suggest ways to avoid burnout while producing authentic work that does more than follow trends. As one of Canada’s most successful young artists working in studio ceramics, her experiences have much to teach us about running a creative business without losing your soul.

​Dahl’s lecture will be held in the Rennie Theatre, room B2160, Emily Carr University on Wednesday, March 7, 2018, at 7:30 pm. We look forward to seeing you there!

For more about Heather Dahl’s work, please see her website at http://www.dahlhausart.com/