» E. Saffronia Downing

Artist, Faculty & Ox-Bow Fellow

Tell us about yourself—where did you grow up, and where do you currently reside? I grew up on the outskirts of Baltimore, Maryland. I’ve lived pretty nomadically since 2016— bouncing between residencies, Chicago, Baltimore, and the Hudson Valley. Right now I live in a small postindustrial town in central Maine, where I am participating in a fellowship at the Lunder Institute for American Art.

Briefly describe your practice. I’m curious about relationships between materiality, craft, industry, and the natural world. Lately, much of my practice has centered around foraging clay from wild deposits. I make site-specific ceramic sculpture and installation. Foraging clay allows me to develop embodied knowledge of place.

You were a Fellow at Ox-Bow, but were you involved with Ox-Bow previously? If so, how did you first get involved? If not, how did you come to know about Ox-Bow? There was a buzz about Ox-Bow when I was an undergrad at Hampshire College. It seemed exciting to make art in a small community, in such proximity to the land and water. During my MFA at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, it became a real dream of mine to spend a summer at Ox-Bow. I was inspired by the dune ecosystem of Ox-Bow’s campus and the clay cliffs nearby. I applied three times, and was happily accepted to the Ox-Bow Fellowship in 2020.

Could you speak about your experience as a Fellow? I was in the 2020 cohort that was disrupted due to COVID, so my experience was a little different than Ox-Bow Fellowships of the past. Still, the atmosphere at Ox-Bow cultivated a peaceful, friend-filled, and productive time. Every day I woke up, grabbed coffee, and headed to work in the Ceramics Studio. I loved the dance parties in the woods. Exploring the rocks and clay at nearby beaches were some of my favorite moments.

How did the local environment or landscape act as a teaching tool in your 2021 Art on the Meadow workshop? I appreciated the opportunity to teach directly with the landscape through my Art on the Meadow workshop. My students foraged clay from a nearby beach. Foraging fosters close observation of the natural world. We homed in on chunks of gray clay situated along Lake Michigan’s shoreline. Through my workshop, we cultivated attentiveness toward the local environment. Is foraging clay common in your teaching practice, and how does it influence your students in their making and/or understanding of the medium? I like to teach wild-clay workshops to cultivate a holistic approach to ceramic making. The intensive process of foraging clay offers an opportunity to experience one’s body and labor in relation to land and environment. One student in my class commented that foraging clay made them reevaluate how much physical work and earthen material it takes to create one ceramic pot. In an era of mass production and consumption, hand processes particularly are poignant.

Learn more about E. Saffronia Downing at www. e-saffronia.net/

COME TAKE A CLASS WITH US!

Wet Plate Photography

with Jaclyn Silverman, August 7 - 13

Chicago-based photographer and educator, Jaclyn Silverman brings this historic and time-honored wet-plate collodion process to Ox-Bow. Students will learn to make glass plate images and explore the fundamentals of large format view camera photography. Learn more about our Academic Courses online at, www.ox-bow.org/summer-courses

Norman Deam

On January 8 of this year, we lost a dear friend of Ox-Bow, Norman Deam. In the company of the family he so treasured, Norm passed peacefully at the age of 89 in San Luis Obispo, California. His family writes that he will be remembered for his “free spirit, intellect, and will.” Throughout much of Ox-Bow’s history, Norm enchanted our campus, becoming a part of its legacy and spirit. He sparked traditions, cared for the lands, and wove himself into the threads of Ox-Bow.

Norm spent childhood summers at his family’s decommissioned lighthouse in Saugatuck, a tradition he carried into his adulthood and passed on to two more generations of Deams. His father, Arthur Deam, served as Ox-Bow’s Executive Director in 1976 and as President of the Board for over 15 years, forming deep family ties to Ox-Bow. Norm continued to foster a relationship with our campus long after his father’s retirement. He and his wife, Connie, took glassblowing and painting classes on campus for a number of years and passionately collected art by young artists. With their lighthouse just a canoe ride away, the Deams’ neighborliness blossomed into a unique kinship with Ox-Bow. Norm often paddled over on summer nights with his children to play volleyball on the Meadow and invited faculty and staff to his place for cocktail parties.

DID YOU KNOW...

Scattered all over the grounds, cabins, and Crow’s Nest trail you can find an assortment of shapes, styles, and weathered handpainted signs — just another element of Ox-Bow’s charm. All of the signs have been made by various staff members throughout the years.