artists in residence

Bio

Sara Alfieri is a design-driven ceramic artist originally from Rochester, New York. She received her BFA from Illinois State University, completed a post-baccalaureate program at Colorado State University, and received her MFA from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Alfieri’s work investigates the layered relationship between design, function, and accessibility through digitally designed, slip-casted ceramic vessels and architecturally-inspired sculptures. Alfieri has been featured in several publications, including the “Exposure” section of Ceramics Monthly and the Strictly Functional Pottery National Exhibition catalogues (2021, 2022, and 2024). She was awarded the “Studio Potter Merit Award” in the 2023 NCECA Student Juried Show and “Best in Show” in the 2023 Art Students League of Denver Biennial Exhibition. Alfieri has exhibited her work nationally in several recognized galleries and remains committed to supporting and engaging with gallery representation through the creation of both her ceramic vessels and sculptures.

Bio

Erin Drake was born and raised in Toledo, Ohio. She attended Bowling Green State University, in Ohio, where she received her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in studio art in 2021. While in school, she worked as a studio technician as well as was a studio assistant to John Balistreri and assisted him with his large public art installation at the Kansas City Airport. Following her BFA, she pursued her MFA at the University of Missouri in the School of Visual Studies in ceramics. She graduated with her MFA in 2024. Her work predominantly focuses on the combination of stones, fruit, flower buds, and small foliage into invented environments, then hides insects or other invented animals to mimic the plants in the work. These interests have coalesced into a sculptural ceramic practice with a focus on the creation of an invented world. Currently, Erin is teaching classes at Driftwood Ceramics and works as a kiln room supervisor.

Bio

Led by the wonder of the lineage of craft, Zoey McLeod has long adored handmade objects. Growing up in her grandfather’s glass blowing shop, she has been exposed to the intimate connection between maker, object, and user her whole life. She first discovered clay at Indiana University in 2020 and was so inspired she immediately changed her major, leading to her pursuing a BFA in December of 2023. 

Much of her work exists at the intersection of tangible and emotional utility. She examines how objects can be reifications of the memories tied to them, inspiring her to create a world of her own. Playfully decorated baskets, tree-inspired candelabras, and modified flower vases bring a sense of delight to objects with sometimes mundane functions. She values making in collaboration with natural materials to use as mementos of memory and adorn the home, instilling pieces of affectionate nostalgia within the domestic space.

Bio

Matt Pekarek is a research-based ceramic artist. A recent graduate of the University of Southern California (2026) with a BA in Art and a BA in Archaeology, Matt uses his archaeological training to consider clay as a material and medium for historical storytelling. His work uses archival and collected material to comment on labor-related United States history. As precedent for this type of work, he considers clay’s connections to memory via the ‘commemorative plate’ tradition and its historical ties to abolitionism. Navigating and breaking the lines between craft and art, Matt positions his work alongside personal and familial labor history.

Bio

Christian T. Roberts is a ceramic artist and educator whose practice investigates the intersection of structure and support through abstraction. He received his MFA in Ceramics from Kent State University, and his BFA in Studio Art with a minor in English from Appalachian State University. Exhibited nationally, Roberts creates abstract geometric sculptures to question how systems of support shape labor, identity, and interpersonal relationships while simultaneously imposing constraint and pressure to conform. 

BIO

Jamie Westermeyer is a figurative ceramic sculptor. She received her BFA in Ceramics from Missouri State University and her MFA in Ceramics from the School for American Crafts at Rochester Institute of Technology in 2026. Formerly Head of Studio at Clayroom in San Francisco, she brings years of experience in ceramics education, community programming, and artist support.

Her narrative-driven sculptures examine girlhood, domestic environments, and the expectations that shape how women are taught to move, soften, endure, and care for others. Using exaggeration and shifts in scale, she transforms familiar objects and figures into charged scenes that balance playfulness with tension. Through figurative ceramic sculpture, she explores how sensitivity, attentiveness, and emotional labor are learned over time, using clay to make visible the physical consequences of absorption.

Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, including in New York, California, Missouri, Ireland, and China. Alongside her studio practice, Westermeyer has taught ceramics in university and community studio settings and is committed to creating accessible, curiosity-driven learning environments.