Sandra Dolph

In 1971, Sandra Dolph obtained a BS in Art Education from New York State University College. After graduation, she taught at the Adirondack Center for the Arts as well as owning and operating a gallery in upstate New York. After immigrating to the Canadian Rockies in 1974 and establishing a homestead, Sandra taught and ran a clay studio specializing in salt/wood fired pottery. In 1989 she relocated to Galiano Island, British Columbia, where she has spent the past fifteen years making a home for her small family and establishing her studio and gallery set amongst the beautiful cedars of B.C. She has hosted and run numerous workshops from her studio on Galiano, as well as given workshops in Texas, Louisiana and New Mexico. Sandra’s annual visits to Japan began in 1998, where she studies, makes pots and meditates in a Zen Buddhist temple. She now spends up to one third of her year in the East.

Sandra shows her work in various galleries throughout the Northwest and in Japan. In the Fall of 2003 she had a solo show at Kobo Gallery in Seattle, and one year prior she had another solo show at BC Gallery of Ceramics in Vancouver. She has participated in numerous shows and presentations, the most recent being the ‘Transformations’ show in Burnaby and the Tajimi show in Japan.

Sandra’s current focus is on high and low temperature lichen glazes, which are applied to the organic rock-like forms that she throws, builds and alters. The inspiration comes from her long daily walks along the coast and in the forests of Galiano Island.

Artist Statement:

“Pots express my understanding of the world, of how I see the inside world, the outside world. The more I know my home in these two worlds (which are after all, one) the more awareness I am able to bring to the making of the pots.
There is an emptiness in a pot that will hold everything. Empty, it receives and fills up with who I am. The more spacious and open on the inside, the more beautiful on the outside.”