CARRIE ARMSTRONG
Ceramics
Carrie Armstrong graduated in 2021 with a BA in Craft as a 20-year intermittent student of the College for Creative Studies, alternating focus between education and creating ClayLab Detroit over that span.
Her pieces have been featured at Pewabic Pottery for over 17 years, as well as the American Ceramic Art Museum in California and various public and private collections.
Her ancestral lineage is Detroit Proper (on Santa Rosa), but she lives in the county now so as to have goats and quiet. Porcelain clay having been the primary focus, there is never a lack of attention to many other mediums, including illustration, oil and acrylic paintings and needle work. An undeclared minor throughout her college career, she plans to obtain her BFA in Painting; this journey will be intermingled with traditional canvas paintings and also exploring the 2D world on 3D porcelain objects.
Find Out, 2020
Porcelain
8 x 5.5”
America’s Dreaming, 2020
Porcelain
8 x 7.5”
Badass Muscle Car Chicks, 2021
Porcelain
Various sizes, 9” round plate, approx. 5 x 6” bowls
Badass Muscle Car Chicks, 2021
Porcelain
Various sizes, 9” round plate, approx. 5 x 6” bowls
Badass Muscle Car Chicks, 2021
Porcelain
Various sizes, 9” round plate, approx. 5 x 6” bowls
Badass Muscle Car Chicks, 2021
Porcelain
Various sizes, approx. 5 x 6” bowls
Mod Handle Cups, 2021
Porcelain
Various sizes
Orb Tea Set for Two, 2020
Porcelain
Teapot 8.5 x 10”
Cups approx. 3.5” round
Feelings, 2020
Porcelain
Cup. 6.5 x 3”
CARRIE ARMSTRONG
The daughter of a tough, funny perfectionist, who laughed loudly and loved deeply. Her sense of fashion and style was unparalleled. She had the cool-mom version of Tupperware parties: Ceramics Night. Her girlfriends sat on our basement’s metal chairs with tables dressed in decorative plastic cloths, ashtrays of many styles. They played Motown, talked husbands, kids and, for many like my mom for the first generation, jobs. They were a magical coven, oozing of 80s style, flowered cigarettes and White Russians, dabbing brushes of acrylic onto a commercial bisque casting: a giant tiger on a pedestal of rocks tonight, right out of the Amaco catalog. They made masterpieces to adorn their shagged living rooms. And had great times.
Also my dad, a mischievous hairdresser from Cali who gave up creative plans for Paint and Trim at General Motors, to selflessly serve his growing family. He kept me in satin jackets and roller skates and gave me the keys every time (from 16 years old.) I drove some of the best classic cars made. Fast.
My art is always directly or indirectly an autobiographical connection, with some direct homage to the culture my parents provided me: a first-gen GenX, independent latchkey kid. Hip, young, hard-working parents, who gave their kids freedom and let them be themselves. The work serves as tribute (via their oldest child) with playfulness, diligence, detail, joy in making, and unafraid to work too hard or far into the night if the flow is good. R.I.P.