University of Oklahoma Ceramics
Red Clay Faction
University of Oklahoma Ceramics
Faculty and Students
Faculty
Stuart Asprey
Associate Professor of Ceramics
Stuart Asprey was born in England and raised in California. He enjoys cooking
on his Oklahoma Joe BBQ, watching OU football, hanging out with his family,
bug collecting at an amateur level, and making art. He is currently an Associate
Professor of Ceramics at the University of Oklahoma in Norman. Since joining
the faculty in 2012, he has been recognized with 19 grants and awards for his
teaching and creative activity.
Jamie Bates Slone
Assistant Professor of Ceramics
www.jamiembates.com
@jamiebatesslone
Jamie Bates Slone is a sculptor living and working in Norman, Oklahoma where she is Assistant Professor of Ceramics at the University of Oklahoma. Jamie received her MFA from the University of Kansas and her BFA from the University of Central Missouri. Her work addresses the fragility of the human spirit in relation to her personal history with physical and mental illness.
Doug Casebeer
Artist in Residence Ceramics
Doug Casebeer joined the faculty of the University of Oklahoma as Artist in Residence in Ceramics after 35 years as Artist Director of Anderson Ranch Arts Center in Snowmass Village, Colorado. He received his MFA from Alfred University and his BFA from Wichita State University. Doug has received a multitude of awards and honors for his creative work and service including
an Honorary Membership from the National Council on the Education for the Ceramic Arts, the Outstanding Service Award from Anderson Ranch Arts Center in Snowmass Village, Colorado, and the Walter Gropius Master Craftsman Award from the Huntington Museum of Art in Huntington, West Virginia. He has taught over 200 workshops nationally and internationally, from Chile, Nepal, Italy, Mexico, Jamaica, Taiwan, Brazil and across the states and has work included in exhibitions, permanent collections and commissions around the world.
Doug's work looks at issues that honor the spirit of human existence. Within his artwork, he searches for meaning in the relationships between the ideas of storage, shelter, and nourishment.
Current Grads
David Morrison
MFA Candidate 2024
David was born and raised in Batavia, IL a western suburb of Chicago. He attended St. Olaf College in Northfield, MN where he received his B.A. in studio art and a concentration in Asian Studies. Upon graduating he was an artist intern for the summer and fall of 2019 at Anderson Ranch Arts Center. Following his time at Anderson Ranch Arts Center he was a Fifth Year Emerging Artist at St. Olaf College. Currently, he is a Post-Baccalaureate Candidate at the University of Oklahoma. He is making functional ceramics while exploring place, ritual, and community in his work.
CJ Carter
MFA Candidate 2025
cj.carter@ou.edu
@cjcarterclay
Nerdy, queer, and a genuine Pacific Northwesterner, CJ mostly makes figurative sculpture, but they also love fitness, playing board games, and being outdoors. CJ discovered clay after obtaining a 3D Digital Graphics BFA at the Rochester Institute of Technology and is currently pursuing an MFA at the University of Oklahoma. Their work can be found across the US and internationally.
Former Students
Marissa Childers
MFA 2022
Marissa Childers was born and raised in the small town of Florence, Alabama. From a young age, she always had a strong desire to create. She earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree at the University of North Alabama and is now pursuing her Master of Fine Arts at the University of Oklahoma.
She creates colorful, hand-built forms that are influenced by her childhood memories, nostalgia, and the feeling of comfort.
Michael Takahata
Post Baccalaureate Student 2022
Imichael.takahata@gmail.com
@michael_takahata
Michael Takahata was born in Oklahoma City, and attended the University of Oklahoma where he received a BFA in studio art. Michael is currently pursuing a post baccalaureate studies at the University of Oklahoma, where he continues to develop his body of work. Currently his main focus is to use research and self-exploration to better understand his identity and to make work that embodies that discovery.
Chrystal O'Boyle
Post Baccalaureate Student 2022
chrytsaloboyle@gmail.com
@chrystaloboylepottery
Chrystal has had a lifelong love of the arts. Born and raised in Fayetteville, Arkansas, Chrystal attended the School of Art at the University of Arkansas and graduated with her Bachelor’s degree in art education. In 2018 she became a teaching artist at the Community Creative Center, instructing classes in ceramics, painting, and glass fusing. In the past year, she completed her post-baccalaureate at the University of Oklahoma studying ceramics. While in Oklahoma she also worked as a studio school instructor at Oklahoma Contemporary. When she isn’t in the studio she enjoys reading, hiking, and spending time with friends and family.
Simphiwe Mbunyuza
MFA - 2021
Simphiwe Mbunyuza started art at a very young age in Caley Junior Secondary School in 2001 and he has received various awards during that time for participating on District, Region, Provincial and National love life games in South Africa. He was born in 1989/03/21 in Butterworth Hospital. He grew up in a near by village called Emambendeni. After high school he enrolled for a Diploma in Fine Art at Walter Sisulu University in 2010. He furthered his studies and
did B-tech degree in Fine Art at the same institution from 2013 till 2014. During his Diploma studies he was awarded each and every year for outstanding achievements in ceramics and drawing. During his third year at Walter Sisulu University he was awarded one of the high award called Dr John Steele award for excellency in ceramics in 2012.
Simphiwe has exhibited in prominent art galleriesin South Africa particularly in Cape Town art Galleries such as, Art in the Yard Gallery, The Cape gallery, Art on Churchgallery, Absolute Art Gallery, Dorpstraat Gallery etc.
He had various exhibitions in the South of France that were presented under an agency called Undiscovered Canvas in 2016 to 2017. His work was also exhibited in one of the galleries in Vallauris, South of France at the Hamilton Art gallery, China.etc.
Erica Hopper
MFA 2020
Erica Hopper earned her BFA from Eastern New Mexico University and is currently a MFA candidate at The University of Oklahoma. Her work examines the symbiotic relationship of creation and destruction in reference to history and today's society.
Ryan Davis
BFA 2019 - Post-Bacc 2020
Ryan Davis, raised in the heart of Oklahoma City, relocated to his rural community as an adolescent. Throughout Davis’s childhood he spent considerable time working alongside his family in their hotel and restaurant learning the art of service and what it meant to provide quality hospitality. This formed the starting point for his pursuit of producing functional ceramics and his goals as a potter. Davis obtained his Bachelor of Fine Arts in Studio Art from The University of Oklahoma with an emphasis in ceramics and minor in art history. He is currently assisting Artist-in-Residence Doug Casebeer, and serves as a lab technician for OU’s ceramics facility. Looking forward Davis will begin his candidacy for his MFA from Wichita State University in the fall of 2020. The work made in his studio focuses on atmospheric firings.
Courtney Segrest
BFA 2019 - Post-Bacc 2020
Growing up constantly surrounded by artistic mediums and a do-it-yourself attitude, Courtney Segrest developed a love for the creative process. Going on to the University of Oklahoma, Segrest pursued this passion to receive her BFA in Studio Arts. With a focus on contemporary sculpture and ceramics, she went on to create art that encapsulates memories, and our emotional ties to it. Up next she will be pursuing an MFA in Ceramics from the University of North Texas. Here she will experiment and develop her artwork into a new body of work
Stephanie O'Donnell
MFA 2019
stephanie.odonnell85@ou.edu
@Stephanie.odonnell85
Stephanie O'Donnell is a ceramist and sculptor currently earning her MFA at the University of Oklahoma. Stephanie attended Pittsburgh State University, University of South Alabama, and Missouri State University before receiving her BA at Missouri Southern State University in Joplin, MO. Her work is a series of choices that explore the under-valued while responding to both her mental and physical environment.
Mayumi Keifer
MFA 2019
My work tends to blend occidental and oriental influences that form the core of my personal journey as a ceramic artist. I was 3 years old when I started with the arts, in ballet. As I grew older and discovered I had some sense for the arts, I also began to believe that it would be unlikely that ballet or any other art form would play a core part in my life. I was wrong. Not only did I teach classical ballet for more than 20 years, but working in clay, building wood-fired kilns and ceramic arts have become my strongest passion.
I started my undergraduate studies in mechanical engineering, but a series of scheduling issues landed me into ceramic arts. I was drawn to, almost unable to resist, that “bridge” called pottery which melds both the functional and the aesthetic. Now, as I advance through an MFA and begin work as a professional ceramic artist and educator, I find myself combining the engineering with the arts, as I build a series of wood-fired kilns.
I have also discovered an almost hyper-awareness of cultures and their influences on myself and others. I find that similarities overpower the differences, and my work tends to show how humanity truly is connected. Often, I am told by many from various cultures that my work reminds them of the art flavor of their home country.
Indeed, this IS my goal, to inspire others to create something that everyone can see themselves in, and enjoy.
David Stevens
MFA 2016
David grew up in Oklahoma City, he received his BFA from Oklahoma City
University, and his MFA from The University of Oklahoma in Norman. David is
currently an adjunct professor of ceramics and 3D foundations at The University of Oklahoma and also teaches ceramics at Oklahoma Contemporary in Oklahoma City.
Danielle Weignadt
MFA 2018
Danielle Weigandt grew up an army brat and lived all over the southern US before her family settled in Utah. She received her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree and Art Composite Teaching degree from Weber State University in 2013. After teaching two years in junior high and middle school, she received her Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Oklahoma in 2018.
She is currently an adjunct professor at the University of Oklahoma and continuing to work on her current body of work.
