James Makins

Roberta Griffith is best known for small and large ceramic installations, both thrown and hand built ceramic sculptures fired at both low and high temperatures. The latter are made in series, many based on variations of a form incorporating wheel thrown shapes, hand formed bisque molds, or plaster press molds.

Since the 1970's the majority of Griffith?s series and installations have been evocative of her associations of places and their cultural manifestations, with an underlying theme reflecting mortality, universal shortcomings, and both natural and man-made disasters.

Griffith first studied ceramics with J.T. Abernathy and Marie Woo at the University of Michigan and later with Vivika and Otto Heino at Chouinard. Nicholas Vergett was her Master of Fine Art advisor. Griffith was a Fulbright Grant scholar (1962-1964) in Spain, mentored by ceramist Josep Llorens Artigas at L'Escola Massana School of Art and Design in Barcelona. This was during the height of the Artigas and Juan Miro ceramic collaboration. Upon return to the USA (1965), Griffith worked as ceramic designer at Design Tecnics in Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania where she learned production techniques for hand crafted objects.

Griffith joined the faculty at Hartwick College in 1966. She was named chairman of the Department of Art in 1973. In 1979 she was named permanently to the Arkell Hall Foundation Endowed Chair Professor of Art. Griffith taught both ceramics and painting at Hartwick for 42 years when she retired from teaching as Professor Emerita in Art in 2008. She maintains studios in Otego, New York and Princeville, Kauai, Hawai'i. She has been North American correspondent to Revista Cer᭩ca, Madrid, Spain since 1975.