About Laura

Laura received a BFA in ceramics from the Rhode Island School of Design and an MFA in ceramics from the University of Massachusetts. She studied art history with RISD European Honors Program in Rome, Italy. She was artist in residence at the Moravian Pottery and Tile Works in PA and at the Anderson Ranch Art Center in CO. She has taught ceramics at SF City College and the Academy of Arts College in San Francisco.

A Modern Naturalist
My first love was drawing and I have always admired the style of naturalists artists and botanical illustrators like John James Audubon and Maria Sibylla Merian. I see things in black and white, light and shadow. My intention when I draw is to represent my subject as it is with the smallest details intact like the textured fur on the nose of a hare, the pattern of feathers on an owl or the repetition of a bud of hops. I have been working with clay for as long as I can remember and I have always thought of it as a canvas to carry a narrative. When I discovered that I could melt my pencil drawings to the surface of clay that was when my two passions came together to tell my story.

The Curious World of Laura Zindel
When we are young, we have permission to be in awe, enthralled as much by the movement of a river snake as the glimpse of a chipmunk. As we get older, we often temper that joy for something more proper and restrained. I simply never did. From my earliest memories of wandering the forest and riverbanks to this moment right now, I remain enamored of the flora and fauna of this world—its light side as well as the dark. I have always loved to draw, and after refining my craft as a ceramicist I have had the nearly impossible good fortune of blending my greatest passions to create these collections. I love what I do and I couldn’t be happier that others love it too. Perhaps, in my work, you might reconnect with some of that youthful awe in all of us.