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Beth Greenleaf (B.A. ’16) is this week’s featured alum in our new Alumni Spotlight series for the This Week at Meadows e-newsletter. Each week, a different Meadows alum will be highlighted for their accomplishments post-graduation.

The interdisciplinary training at Meadows equips graduates to explore and redefine their creative paths. For artist and ceramicist Beth Greenleaf, that foundation led her from Dallas studios to the Royal College of Art (RCA) in London, where she earned her master’s in Ceramics and Glass. Today, she creates functional and sculptural works that merge folklore, myth and ritual with a deep respect for the natural world.

Greenleaf fell in love with art at a very young age, but it was her time at Meadows that made her realize it could become a career and a lasting fixture in her life. During her time in the Division of Art, Greenleaf found both the freedom and encouragement to pursue her passions across mediums. She initially began in ceramics and drawing but soon added photography, sculpture and art history to her studies as well.

“The teachers at Meadows really embraced not only multimedia work, but also interdisciplinary interests,” recalls Greenleaf, who was simultaneously pursing a degree in archeology from ¾«¶«´«Ã½’s Anthropology program. “If I mentioned my archeology work to my art professors, they would often have relevant reading suggestions or would try to figure out ways I could incorporate that research to further my artistic practice.”

One of the most influential experiences Greenleaf had at Meadows was take part in community wood firings. Though she was already enthralled with ceramics, she realized that wood firing was a special kind of magic because it is a process that relies so heavily on community and trust. Her work with wood kiln firings would later greatly impact her graduate work at RCA.

After graduating from Meadows, Greenleaf built her career step by step, taking up teaching part-time, working as a photographer and creating whenever she could find access to a kiln. Her break came when Meadows faculty encouraged her to submit work to Creep Show II at the Clay Center of New Orleans, her first juried exhibition. That experience opened the door to a series of shows and eventually her acceptance to RCA, where she further developed her storytelling approach to ceramics and participated in collaborative atmospheric firings with Oxford University researchers.

Greenleaf's work today is steeped in myth-making and storytelling that explores the human experience. Drawing inspiration from the woods of northwestern Pennsylvania where she grew up hearing ghost stories and tales of creatures lurking just out of sight in the forest, she uses clay to explore folklore, hybridism, and the ways humans make sense of the unexplainable.

“My hope is that my pieces will become a part of the owners’ daily ritual, something they reach for in the morning, a small way to start the day off with joy,” she explains. “As it becomes an integral part of their day, it picks up a life and a story of its own, separate from any story I imparted on it when it was created.”

Now based once again in Pennsylvania, Greenleaf works from her home studio, selling her art online and at conventions as well as exhibiting both nationally and internationally. She continues to draw on the sense of community she first discovered at Meadows, where shared kiln firings taught her that collaboration and trust are central to artistic growth.

You can find Greenleaf, and her work, on and at .