Croton River Artisans
Lucy Schaeffer | Visiting Artist Submission
Dream House Series
I began my Dream Houses series last year, originally created for the juried Bedford Art Show (January 2025). If invited to be a Visiting Artist at Croton River Artisans, I’d love to build on this body of work—continuing with vases while expanding into larger-scale forms and wall hangings. Depending what schedule might be best for the gallery, I’d love to plan for a show in Fall 2026 or Spring 2027, allowing time to focus on a new, ambitious fine art collection.
Everyone loves to imagine their dream house—but in this series, I set out to capture something deeper: the feeling beneath the dream. My first three pieces—Ocean House, Garden House, and Mountain House—stand roughly 14–18 inches tall and celebrate place as the true source of magic. The house itself is a small, identical white box perched atop a winding staircase. What matters is the imagined world around it: a quiet universe where memory, emotion, and landscape entwine.
These original three pieces have sold, but I plan to continue with the same themes—Ocean, Garden, Mountain—while introducing new ones. The vessels are wheel-thrown in white stoneware, altered, and finished with layered sgraffito carving and underglaze painting. Garden House features real and imagined flora—mushrooms, ladybugs, blossoms—evoking the joy of stepping into full bloom. Ocean House reflects the sea’s beauty, danger, and mystery, while Mountain House uses carved line and texture to convey stillness and awe.
For the Croton River Artisans show, I plan to continue the Dream Houses series with larger works and draw on motifs from the Hudson Valley’s landscape and local flora. I also aim to create wall hangings that extend the narrative and visual language of the vessels into a new format, using subtler texture and bold silhouettes—such as the 27-inch black clay platter shown here as a sample. Since the show is over a year away, I’d be happy to revisit the specific pieces closer to the date for input and approval, ensuring the final collection is a great fit for the gallery.
Additional Work Samples
Below are additional samples of my ceramic work for the committee’s reference. While I don’t plan to include the smaller, more commercial pieces in this show, I do plan to continue utilizing techniques like sgraffito, carving, altering, and water etching in my larger pieces. The collection for the gallerly will focus entirely on large vases and wall hangings. I’m happy to review the final selection with the committee as the show approaches.
Photography/Multi-media
In addition to ceramics, I’m also a photographer. I’d be open to a Visiting Artist show that includes both mediums or focuses solely on ceramics. If we choose to incorporate photography, I’d want the show to feel visually cohesive and thoughtfully curated. A series of work like my Fire & Ice or my Frozen Botanicals (shown below) could complement the ceramic work beautifully—for example, featuring the same plant species carved in sgraffito on a vase and photographed suspended in ice. Echoing the same forms across clay and photography would create a striking visual dialogue between the materials.
Thank you!
As a local Croton artist, I would love to have an opportunity to show work so close to home and join the gallery community. I’d also work hard to promote the show and bring in additional foot traffic during my visit and beyond. Thank you for your consideration!
