Our Ceramics Studio team just got even better with the addition of three NEW artists. Vicky D’Urso, Cristiana Palmieri and Fe Villanueva will join current instructors Eliza Thomas, Anthony Madrigal and Prachi Shah. Read on to learn more about their artistic journey and click here to register for a ceramics class.
Vicky D’Urso, art faculty, has been making ceramics for over 20 years. “Ceramics found me and took a permanent hold of my creative force,” she said. She learned the art and craft in student clubs and community centers and taught pottery classes alongside her career as an economist. She currently also teaches mathematics and statistics and is a practicing artist, educator and researcher. “My passion for ceramics is more than artistic expression, it is also meditation, it is an applied study of the scientific method and an iterative process of observing, understanding and expressing.”
Cristiana Palmieri, art faculty, is a native of Italy and brings a decade of experience working with clay. Her interest in ceramics first took root in Rome and truly flourished when she moved to Chicago. It was during her time there, at the Lillstreet Art Center, that she embarked on her ceramics journey through immersive classes, becoming first a studio technician and then a ceramics instructor. After moving to California, Cristiana devoted her time to volunteering as a ceramics instructor at her children’s school. “I find ceramics to be a particularly compelling medium due to its organic and challenging nature. Clay offers a rich opportunity for creative expression within a structured framework, she says.”
Fe Villanueva is the Ceramics Studio Technician at CSMA. Fe has been playing with clay for 7 years. She started her ceramic journey at a very young age, first playing with mud to taking several ceramic classes at San Jose State University in 2016. Fe loves to use the potter’s wheel to make functional work, such as mugs, cups, bowls, and vases. In addition to her ceramics practice, she is an oil painter. Fe works behind the scenes at CSMA to ensure that our busy studio functions smoothly.
