Liz Zlot Summerfield
Liz Zlot Summerfield is a female American pottery currently in Morganton, Carolina. Liz currently lives in Western North Carolina with her husband, Scott Summerfield and their daughter, Roby. They are both full time artists working from their studios located at their home in Bakersville. Liz attended the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis to complete her Masters of Fine Arts in 2001. Since her graduation, she has lived in Bakersville, North Carolina. She has worked as a studio artist and an instructor in the Professional Crafts Program at Western Piedmont Community College located in Morganton, North Carolina. She has taught at numerous clay facilities and she exhibits her work nationally through exhibitions, galleries, and fine craft shows.
In April 2009, Liz was diagnosed with a type of cancer called non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. When she got the news of the cancer all studio work for her and her husband who was a glass blower named Scott Summerfield stopped. This caused a lot of issues due to the illness but also bill as ceramics was their daily dose of income.
She now currently works as a full time studio artist from her home. Just like thousands of other potters Liz has been an instructor and still likes visiting other artists at multiple clay facilities, colleges, and universities. She exhibits and sells her work nationally through exhibitions, galleries, and fine craft shows. She has been featured and on the cover of Ceramics Monthly and Clay Times magazine and been included in a variety of ceramic publications.
Liz has various small collections of hand built boxes, creamers, butter dishes, cups and many more household items made using pottery. Liz tries to include all sorts of patterns, colours and tries to pull history into her pots. She likes using the patterns, colours, text and shapes of vintage aprons, round barns, antique kitchen appliances, bread boxes, recipe cards, pails and egg baskets, Liz seeks to leave a great emphasis through her work with a sense of “a sense of nostalgia, memory and pastime.’’
Liz says, “Everybody can have a relationship with a cup or a creamer because we’ve all seen those things since we were kids. In that sense, what I make is very accessible.” After researching Liz over the internet I have been greatly amazed. Liz was one of the few artist who not only threw pots, made hand built pots and also gave step by step video tutorials on how someone can make their very own pot like her. In her videos she gives all sorts of tips on things that she has learnt on her own. I love how willing and open she is to helping others and assisting them as they grow in their ceramic making skills. I am not the only one to admire Liz’s work. Katey Schultz says: ‘Summerfield’s collections have both aesthetic and utilitarian functions and speak in a unified voice that evokes home, domesticity and family.’ I totally agree with this. All of Liz’s work is neither forced on to one specific gender role nor certain age group.
