Martha Grover is a functional potter, living in Bethel Maine, creating thrown and altered porcelain pieces. She attended Bennington College in Vermont, where she received her undergraduate degree in Architecture. Martha received her MFA in ceramics from the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. She has been awarded multiple residencies and fellowships including the Fogelberg Fellowship at the Northern Clay Center in Minneapolis, Sage Scholarship and Taunt Fellowship at the Archie Bray Foundation, and a yearlong residency at Red Lodge Clay Center. Her work has been shown nationally and internationally and can be found at galleries across the country. Her work has been featured in many publications including Ceramics Monthly, Clay Times, Pottery MakingIllustrated, and the Lark 500 series, and was the cover feature of Ceramic Monthly’s May 2010 issue. For images and more information, visit her website www.MarthaGrover.comArtist StatementI seek to enhance the experience of interacting with functional objects. I work toward creating a sense of elegance for the user while in contact with each porcelain piece. Reminiscent of orchids, flowing dresses, and the body, the work has a sense of familiarity and preciousness. Direct curves are taken from the female figure, as well as the fluidity of a dancer moving weightlessly across the floor. The space between elements is electrified with anticipation and tension. I think of the fluid visual movement around a piece, as a choreographer would move dancers across a stage. Transmitting desire-there is a sense of revealing and concealing, a layering of details that serves to catch our attention immediately, and then the details draw us in, to make a closer inspection. In our lives, we often move past the objects surrounding us at a very quick pace. My work generates a moment to pause. My goal is to create an undeniable presence, one that acts as an invitation to explore the work thoroughly, taking time to know all of its many facets. Only through sustained interaction we can truly know and appreciate someone or something.