Donna Rizzo | Pottery / Sculpture

After dancing all of her life, Donna Rizzo turned to clay. Her choreographing, performing and teaching children have definitely had an impact on her clay world. The themes she used and characters she portrayed in dance are now finding themselves in her ceramic sculptures and functional pottery. Hopefully they reflect the love, joy and playfulness she finds in making them.

Donna Rizzo works with clay at different temperatures using both electric and raku kilns. Each piece dictates how it will be fired and glazed. Most of her pieces move or suggest movement from rocking horse tea pots to children swinging, dolls hanging, dresses evoking rhythms, to southern churches illuminated by candle light. Her dance studio has now become a clay one and you may find her there happily improvising and creating one of a kind pieces looking for homes.

Donna Rizzo became a full time clay artist in 2002 after leaving a long career in dance. She has received both the Governors Award in the Arts (distinguished artist) and a Tennessee Arts Commission Individual Artist Grant. One of Donna's carousels was selected as 1 of 33 pieces for the 2010 Best of Tennessee Craft Exhibition.