Visitors at Art Center Sarasota view a piece from Molly Duff-Clarke's

Home means something different to everybody. For some it’s a New York City apartment or a condominium in Bradenton Beach. For St. Petersburg-based ceramicist Molly Duff-Clarke, home is a feeling—a feeling that she cultivated while raising her seven-month-old son. Duff-Clarke, a transplant from Michigan who earned her MFA from the University of South Florida, has created a show now on view at Art Center Sarasota, Home for Dinner. In Home for Dinner, Duff-Clarke has brought her newfound experience raising her son with her husband into her work.

“The intention is that it is a celebration of the domestic space and the rituals that occur within it,” says Duff-Clarke. “The backdrop of my life while creating this show has been stepping into the role of motherhood and creating the home that we want to raise our son in. I’m a ceramic artist, so I use clay more than anything, and then I imbue other materials in the finishing of the pieces.”

The main focus of Home for Dinner has been large-scale, functional ceramic objects. An armchair with a cushion atop of it, discarded baby bottles and a table with stools surrounding it—similar to a dinner table—are some of the pieces, all fired in the kiln, that punctuate the show. “I see the pieces as these vignettes of domestic spaces,” says Duff-Clarke. “They are these large, functional ceramic forms that look very much handmade. I leave the impression of my fingerprints on the objects, leaving them sort of imperfect, and then paint them with bright, colorful patterns.”

For Duff-Clarke, the idea was to create as much playfulness and joy as possible with the forms and colors of the individual pieces, and then allow the vignettes to set the thematic stage of domestic life. Duff-Clarke hand-coils all of her sculptures—it’s a lot of work, often with her son strapped to her chest—but just like her journey into motherhood, she wouldn’t change a thing. “The support of family has been huge in getting this show out the door,” attests Duff-Clarke.

Home for Dinner, August 20-September 26, Art Center Sarasota, 707 N Tamiami Trail, Sarasota.

Visitors at Art Center Sarasota view a piece from Molly Duff-Clarke's

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