Ceramic sculptor Scotchie working down under

While one might want Virginia Scotchie’s career, they might not want her travel schedule. Or maybe they would.
The Columbia artist spent the spring traveling around the county, either delivering shows or workshops and lectures in California, North Carolina, Georgia and other places. Recently, she was to have been in the studio at the University of South Carolina where she is a professor, but instead had to go pick up a show that had just closed in Augusta.
Once back she continued working on a commission for a new building going up in downtown Charlotte which will be installed in the fall. She also recently finished a commission for the Lowe’s headquarters in North Carolina. An exhibition of her ceramic sculptures is at the Blue Spiral Gallery in Asheville through the end of June.
The artist just headed down under for five weeks working and teaching in New Zealand and Australia. Such world travel isn’t new for her – she’s taught in Australia, Hawaii, Taiwan (where she also did a major commission for the national ceramics museum), China, the Netherlands and other places. She’ll be one of the primary speakers at the Australian Ceramics Triennial in Sydney after leading workshops and talks in Auckland and Hamilton, New Zealand.
The Charlotte commission - 30 spheres which will be displayed in lobby is one of her largest ever – is mostly done. Her studio is lined with unglazed balls she’ll glaze and fire when she returns.
It wasn’t all that easy to get away. She went to the Columbia airport to catch a 2 p.m. flight, but the first leg of her trip – to Washington D.C. – was canceled. She was put in a van and driven to Charlotte to catch another flight, but missed it. At 8 p.m. one of her students was driving to Charlotte to bring her back to Columbia where she’d have to start the trip all over the next day. But she made it to Sydney last weekend.
(This is the first of a series of articles on artists that will run during the next week or so.)