Tiffany Bailey
Tiffany C. Bailey is a contemporary mixed media sculptor. She is the head of the ceramics department, teaches ceramics, and also serves as the gallery director at Phoenix College in Phoenix, AZ. She received her MFA in ceramics from Arizona State University in 2013 and BFA in ceramics from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire in 2006. She currently resides in Tempe, Arizona where she operates a ceramic studio. She exhibits her work locally, regionally and nationally. She was an artist-in-residence at The Mesa Arts Center, Mesa, AZ and The International Ceramics Studio, Kecskemét, Hungary in 2013, also The Pottery Workshop, Jingdezhen, China in 2011. Her sculptures are made primarily from porcelain and are heavily influenced by the topography of her childhood home in Southwestern Wisconsin.
About Tiffany Bailey
Artist Statement
There is a beautiful sense of freedom growing up on a river. As a young child bravery and confidence build quickly when walking into water that is not transparent. This early intrigue grows and leads to jumping off train trestles into a dark unknown and speeding down a channel in the moonlight as your body bounces balanced on top of an inner tube pulled behind a boat. One really gains a sense of immunity to danger, but also an appreciation for luck.
My elementary, middle school and high school were housed in the same building erected in the middle of a cornfield. My bus driver was my best friend’s grandpa; who was also a farmer. Future Farmers of America and football were top priorities, definitely not art or the pursuit of art. In fact, I had to take a class on cow identification in high school. Yes, cow identification!
In this ruralscape, fields of hay, corn, cows and chickens were familiar scenery. My family, like so many in this small community, were farmers. They worked this land before the sun rose until after the sunset earning very minimal wages. My family among many families no longer farm. The increased competition from larger farms and industrial agriculture coupled with the cost of maintaining farm infrastructure and land became unsustainable.
