An Ode To The River

An Ode To The River bridges functional pottery and artist in residence, Chloe Stephenson’s deep personal connection to the natural world, shaped during two summers living and working along the Chattooga River in South Carolina. As a whitewater raft guide on one of the first Wild and Scenic rivers east of the Mississippi, Chloe spent her days immersed in a landscape of ancient rock, rushing water, wildlife, and quiet moments of play and reflection.
The experience sparked a profound spiritual connection to the land, inspiring a body of work that tells stories through material, imagery, colour and texture. Using warm bodied clays on the potter’s wheel, layering with slips, leaving areas exposed, and handcarving each vessel, Chloe connects her work to the warm desert tones and Appalachian imagery with emerging influences from her new home on Vancouver Island.
Connecting humanity back to the natural terrain, the wildlife and sharing of personal memories across the surfaces of these functional pots, Chloe invites viewers to reconnect with nature in everyday life.
Supplemented by film photographs taken by her brother, this exhibition offers a glimpse of the Chattooga River through Chloe’s eyes—where pottery becomes both a vessel for storytelling and a gift back to the earth for all that it has given.