BC Arts Guild hosts exhibit for Suzanne Renfrow

Tue, 11/05/2019 - 9:14am — Don Lindsey

Ask anyone in the area who the best potter is and one name will stand out - "Suzanne ." When she spoke at her exhibition Saturday, November 2, at the Butler County Arts Guild you could feel the passion in her voice as she talked about the lengthy process of collecting firewood, cutting, splitting and letting it season; the process of throwing each piece of handmade pottery and the love she has for all her friends and family that help her .

When she gets ready to fire her wood-burning kiln, it has to be watched continuously 24 hours a day and more wood added until the temperature reaches 2,375 degrees, which can take three days.

Suzanne has family and friends that volunteer in 4 to 8-hour shifts to monitor and add wood to the fire.

Throughout the year, Suzanne and husband Alan acquire firewood, cut and split it so that it will age.

Brenda Longhofer, her mother, and Jerry Sager, her aunt, also help wherever they can.

The finished products are all one-of-a-kind pieces of art which she sells at her Holiday Pottery Sale located at her studio, 4821 Bowling Green Road. The dates this year are Saturday, December 10 to 5 p.m. and Sunday from noon to 5 p.m.

Renfrow earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree in 1995 from Western Kentucky University and has been busy ever since. Twenty years ago she built an above-the -ground, wood-fired kiln and five years ago she tore it down and made a much larger one.

This past June, she started a Side-by-Side Program where local artists team up with behaviorally challenged youth to assist them in creating their piece of artwork, and then it gets displayed.

Next June, she is doing that program again because it was so rewarding to the artist and the students.

North Butler Elementary School has a beautiful ceramic mural that she made with the students. Suzanne has worked with many students on individual and group projects over the years.