Ask a PC ceramics student about Tiffany Bailey, Faculty and Coordinator of Ceramics Studies, and they will undoubtedly mention her enthusiasm and positivity. Student Lila Rodriguez describes her and other students flocking to Tiffany like "bugs to a light." Yet, it's not just Tiffany's positive attitude that makes her this year's Distinguished Teaching Award winner. She was honored for her excellence in instruction, a commitment to ongoing professional improvement, and significant service to the broader community.
, a student with her own ceramics studio, appreciates Tiffany's classes for more than just the technical skills they provide. She notes that Tiffany's dedication to the studio and its students is what truly sets her apart. "She pays attention to every detail, and our success is her success," Judith says.
Stacked classes are unique to PC's ceramics program. Tiffany teaches Ceramics 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 in the same class. "I have advanced students who have been taking the class for three years and some for 25 years," she says, "and I have students who may have taken a class in high school or are brand new to clay, creating a wonderfully layered, enriching environment. Advanced students are excited to see beginning students experience all the wonders of clay, and the beginning students look up in awe at people in the advanced levels."
Marina Naito, who won this year's 3D Vanguard art award for "Dance of Kimonos," says of Tiffany, "She's meticulous about detail. Every method she teaches has a foundation, a building block system. By the time you get to studio four, you're starting to explore on your own, and in studio five, she sees where you're going and will help push you in a direction, not Do it this way, but––" Judith chimes in: "––to develop work that has a message and has a voice."
Tiffany’s voice is influenced by the topography of her childhood home in Southwestern Wisconsin. With a population of 356, steep bluffs along the upper Mississippi River, forest-covered hills, and agricultural architecture, the town's landscape prompted Tiffany to memorialize her idyllic experience there, according to . "It was an interesting dichotomy growing up in an area where the land is so vast, but the population is so small," she writes. "There is all this space to explore, create adventures and solve curiosities, but it is juxtaposed with a village of 300 people who know everything about you, yet nothing at all." Her work marries representational and abstract forms to represent a place that is both intimate and expansive.
While Tiffany returns to her hometown in Wisconsin this summer to set up a ceramics studio, she has invested considerable time studying other cultures' ceramic practices abroad. She was an artist-in-residence at The Pottery Workshop in Jingdezhen, China, in 2011, and The International Ceramics Studio in Kecskemét, Hungary, in 2013.
Most recently, she traveled to Mexico to study Mexican, a tin-glazed earthenware pottery that traditionally includes paintings of birds, flowers, and nature scenes. Tiffany went to the factories, visited with artisans, and watched them work. Then she brought that knowledge back into her classroom. For two semesters after her trip, she showed slides with images of majolica from the artists she visited and gave lectures and demos on "very traditional ways of using majolica to very contemporary ways to use majolica, to super-out-there ways to use it," she says. "I taught students everything about majolica, and they all made work. Then, we had a wonderful majolica exhibition in the Eric Fischl Gallery."
"The change that Tiffany brought to the studio is enormous," says Judith. "You could see the before and after. She brought new glazes, introduced us to new techniques, and encouraged us to develop our art." In her first year as a residential faculty member, Tiffany built, glazed, and fired in the kiln hundreds of clay butterflies and stars to showcase all the glaze colors and patinas at various cone temperatures. Marina adds," With all these different glazes, you're not going to find something comparable, which allows experimentation. I have grown. I love making bowls, but I started over with all the different techniques she's taught."
The reviews of Tiffany on rate-my-professor websites reiterate what makes her so sought out as a teacher: "I am continually amazed at what a fantastic teacher she is. Always present, lots of demos, high energy, fun, super knowledgeable in all things clay. Her critiques are insightful and positive. Tiffany Bailey supports your ceramic interest in every possible way and helps you find your artistic voice."
Congratulations to Tiffany Bailey on her Distinguished Teaching Award!
Want to find your artistic voice in clay or the other studio arts classes offered at ϲ? Visit Studio Art or contact Fine Arts Program Director Jay Hardin, 602.285.7181, jay.hardin@phoenixcollege.edu.
Or reach out to Visual and Performing Arts academic advisors, Tatum Begay or LeAndria Gene, vpa-advising@phoenixcollege.edu.