About Us

Natasha Hovey was born and raised in New Hampton, Iowa. She received her BFA from The University of Iowa in 2011 and recently received her MFA from The University of Wisconsin-Madison.

As a sculptor working in ceramics, Natasha is driven to explore the body’s internal systems at a microscopic level, utilizing the concept of the multiple through a slip-casting process. Curiosity of human physiology motivates her to explore the unfamiliar workings and genetic mappings within the human body, specifically her own genetic variations. Her work is influenced by historical anatomical imagery, as well as contemporary computer-generated models that abstract raw organic matter into two-dimensional form.

Natasha has recently exhibited work at the MANA Contemporary in Chicago and the Glassell School of Art at The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. She has been awarded the University Wide Fellowship at the University of Wisconsin, the Iowa Center for the Arts Council Award, and The University of Iowa Emerging Artist Scholarship. This past summer, she attended a ten-week residency at Sunday Morning @ European Work Center in the Netherlands, through NCECA’s International Residency Program.

She will be with HCCC from September, 2014, through August, 2015. To learn more about her work, please visit www.natashahovey.com.

Jera Rose Petal Lodge is a jewelry designer who works primarily with steel and silver. Her wire-based artworks range from small-scale production and limited-edition work to large-scale, sculptural jewelry pieces. The forms she uses are frequently geometric in nature, utilizing patterns and repetition to create bold graphic shapes. Design and function are Jera’s primary concerns, and the strength and durability of steel allows her to create forms that are lightweight and visually delicate, yet sturdy and easily wearable. She often uses cold connections to introduce elements of motion, sound and playfulness into her jewelry.

Jera received her BFA in jewelry/metalsmithing from Edinboro University in 2012. Since graduating, she has worked as a jewelry production assistant, as a summer studio technician at Peters Valley Craft Center in New Jersey, and, most recently, as a summer staff assistant at Haystack Mountain School of Craft. In 2013, she started her studio jewelry business and exhibited in Craft Boston’s Spring Show as an invited artist. She was recently published in 500 Art Jewelry Necklaces.

During her residency at HCCC, Jera plans to continue with her current bodies of work, dealing with jewelry as a set of non-static objects whose significance can change when placed on or removed from the body. She will also pursue new work that explores the pluralistic results of individual creative decisions that occur during the process of making. She will be with HCCC from September, 2014, through April, 2015. To learn more about Jera, visit www.jeralodge.com.

Alexis Myre was born and raised in Boulder, Colorado. She studied mathematics and industrial design before transferring to California College of the Arts, where she received a BFA with an emphasis in jewelry and metal arts in 2010.

Alexis’ work is intricate by design and imbues itself both mathematically and symbolically with the idea that all material holds a hidden potential. Her approach to art-making involves mapping and scaling, as well as trial and error, in order to find a solution. The solution she seeks is not definitive or static. Rather, she constructs compositions that gesticulate in their design and are full of tension and activity simultaneously.

During her residency at HCCC, Alexis plans to include hallow-formed metalwork in her mixed-media wall pieces, creating an architectural landscape and a symbolic mapping. She will integrate the metal work into the embroidered plexi-glass surface to serve both as a function of structural integrity and an important visual element in the work.

Alexis has exhibited work in New York, Chicago, Asheville, Oakland, Houston, and other U.S. cities, as well as Rajasthan, India. She was the recipient of a Windgate Fellowship in 2010 and participated in artist residencies in India, Maine and New Mexico. She will be with HCCC from September through November, 2014. To learn more about Alexis, visit www.alexismyre.com.

Collette Spears hails from Indiana, where she received her BFA in ceramics and BA in psychology from Ball State University in 2014. She worked as an educational assistant at Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts during the summer of 2013 and has spent time assisting renowned kiln builder, Ted Neal, with kilns for various clay studios in Indiana, Kentucky, California, and British Columbia.

In her work, Collette explores how art serves as a therapeutic expulsion for the body and mind through process. As someone who has worked to cope with generalized anxiety, finding a healthy outlet for excess energy is essential. She translates psychological tension into clay work, via carving, pattern and form, placing great emphasis on precision and craft. She explores concepts of perfectionism, connection, and vulnerability and is learning to embrace struggle as a critical part of a fulfilling, productive lifestyle. During her one-year residency, she will continue to develop a balance of pattern and form in her work, strengthen concepts, and hopefully find inspiration within the other artistic disciplines represented at HCCC.

Collette has exhibited nationally and was the 2014 NICHE Award Student Winner of the Ceramics: Sculptural category. She was also a NICHE finalist in two other categories and a Windgate Fellowship nominee. She will be with HCCC from September, 2014, through August, 2015. To learn more about Collette, visit www.collettespears.com.

Rena Wood is a fiber artist from St. Louis, MO. She received her BFA in fiber from the Kansas City Art Institute in 2006 and earned her MFA from the Department of Craft/Material Studies at Virginia Commonwealth University in 2013. While in graduate school, Rena received a graduate thesis assistantship and a research grant for travel to London to participate in a workshop at the Royal School of Needlework. Rena has completed artist residencies at the Craft Alliance Center of Art and Design in St. Louis, MO; Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts in Gatlinburg, TN; and the Stephen Pace House in Stonington, ME.

Working primarily with textile materials and processes, Rena’s work “gives physical form to the ephemeral sense of memory.” Often using vintage materials, she combines her own history with that of a previous maker. “The time I spend working is marked by each stitch, each knot, and each repetitive act of my hands. I construct and deconstruct my materials to show a suspension between formation and falling apart, the acts of remembering and forgetting, and to represent time passing and time stopped.”

During her year-long residency at HCCC, Rena plans to expand her studio practice to develop large installations with textile materials and spend time on her labor-intensive stitched work. She will be with HCCC from September, 2014, through August, 2015. For more information, visit www.renawood.com.

Clara Grace Hoag was born and raised in Chicago, Illinois. She received two BFAs from the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign in 2009, and she recently received an MFA in Ceramics from the University of Georgia in Athens in 2013.

In her work, Clara uses the suggestion of structure—both architectural and social—to address issues of the human condition: how people are composed, how they compose the world around them, and how complex or elemental that world can be. She says, “Soaring skyscrapers, complex scaffolding, and accumulations of slum housing describe the complexity of 21st Century life—from the dynamic social constructions that keep our world running to the systemic problems that oppress us every day. Single buildings celebrate individuality or highlight the mundane; amalgamations of architecture create tenuous landscapes, where fragility and stability foil each other, constantly seeking balance.”

During her residency at HCCC, Clara plans to accomplish several goals. She intends to make her art more confrontational by increasing the scale of her work; she plans to use construction materials to make her sculptures more gravity defying; and she wants to continue developing her architectural language by integrating new materials, such as concrete, spray foam, plaster, wood, and metal, into each piece.

Clara has participated in group and solo shows in Illinois, Georgia, and Florida, and she is represented by three galleries in Illinois and North Carolina. She also plays a mean banjo! She will be with HCCC from March – August, 2014. To learn more about her work, visit https://claragracehoag.com/home.html.