Heidi Kreitchet
Originally from Philadelphia, Heidi Kreitchet has been actively wood-firing ceramics for the past 25 years. Kreitchet received her BFA in ceramics from Northern Arizona University focusing on wood-fired ceramics. From 2004 to 2006, Kreitchet was fortunate to assist renowned ceramic artist, Don Reitz, in Clarkdale, Arizona. By watching and absorbing Reitz's skillful, hand building techniques, she was inspired to push her own sculptural ideas with clay. She completed an MFA at Utah State University under the guidance of John Neely and Dan Murphy. In 2011, Kreitchet was asked by David Armstrong, Founder of the American Museum of Ceramic Art (AMOCA) to establish AMOCA Ceramics Studio in Pomona, California. From 2011 to 2021, Kreitchet and her talented team had passionately built a thriving and energetic ceramics studio in Southern California. From 2016 to 2021, she established R x R Gallery at her live/work unit located at the Pomona Packing Plant. Currently Kreitchet is living and working in the Philadelphia area where she is painting, sculpting, and working in textiles.
About Heidi Kreitchet
Artist Statement
I am interested in creating work that expresses my exploration of clay bodies, form, and line. These sculptures become my visual vocabulary for communicating my on-going experience with “pushing clay”. My pieces are sculptural not functional; they are expressive, not practical.
I create a constant change in pattern, line, and form. I am interested in constructing pieces with angles and planes that have multiple textures and hardness to them while enhancing the beauty of the clay’s natural finish by wood firing.
This interaction between the malleable, versatile clay is informed by my immediate reaction to the physical quality of the material. My emotional, intuitive, and physical reaction to handling and manipulating the clay provides the pieces with passion, power, animation, and elasticity.
I believe in expressing movement and gesture by using clay to give the work integrity.
