Annette McCormick
Birth Date: 1949

Artist Gallery
Annette McCormick’s animal imagery stems from a journey to East Africa in 1972, a year after she received her BFA at Florida Atlantic University where she still had access to the university ceramic studio and continued to work with clay. She continued her studies at Memphis Academy of Fine Arts, Wichita State University, and Ashland University. While in Africa, she came across elephant carcasses with tusks removed, and saw warehouses with tusks stacked like cordwood for export. She also saw spotted big cat skins stacked to the ceiling in seedy districts in Nairobi. These experiences left a profound effect on McCormick as an artist as she has incorporated elephant imagery into various works. Throughout her career she sculpted many other African species such as rhino and antelope—always with a thrown vessel of sorts as background. In the mid 1980’s, McCormick changed from salt glazed porcelain to doing mostly Raku, enjoying the visual contrast of white crackle parts against the dark copper glaze. Many of her pots would rarely be called “functional” as they would be deemed more ceremonial—usable on rare occasions, although they are generally traditional form and would be conceded containers. The animals that McCormick felt closer with began to comprise more of her artwork. Wild looking dogs, cats, and endless fish, reptiles, and amphibians. Over her career, McCormick has been given many awards in ceramics, like the Craftsman Award (May Show), Jury Award (The Annual All-Ohio Juried Exhibit), and Award for Excellence (The Clay Cup IV). She has exhibited work in main galleries form California to Florida. She has also been featured in books and many pieces of her artwork are in collections in many galleries and museums. For about a twenty year period, McCormick stopped working, but in 2018 she began filling the studio with work that she never glazed or finished and ideas and drawings of new pieces she hopes to do in the future to continue working on her trade.