Linda Rohrbach-Austerberry is an artist, potter and teacher. After first experiencing the fascination of working in clay as an art major at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, she made a lifetime commitment to the media. She received both her B. S. in Art Education and M. ...A. in Ceramics from Indiana University of Pennsylvania. The work for her Masters degree was both functional pottery and sculptural combinations of fibers and clay. She has also studied ceramics at Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia and at Tokyo Designer Gaukuin in Japan, under the auspices of Parson's School of Design. She taught Ceramics at the Boyertown Area Senior High School for 35 years.

Linda's study of the ceramic arts throughout history has broadened her views and saturated her work with ideas. Her experiences in Europe and Japan are reflected in her gardens, in her kitchen, and in her self-designed food serving and cooking pieces. This love of cooking and gardening has lead to some very unique pieces that are not only beautiful but entirely functional.

Each of Linda's stoneware works express a flowing spontaneity, a pleasing blend of craftsmanship, a free form, and the colors and the textures of nature. In these works there is a kind of organic peace and balance, the echoes of the elemental forces that surround us and affect us. Such is the nature of the potter's art -to bring together earth, water, and fire through the will of artistic expression.

Linda begins the entire process by carefully formulating her own clays and glazes. After throwing on the wheel and then creating her piece, Linda fires it at 2350 degrees. Although she exercises as much control as possible in her creative process, she believes that a ceramist must accept that the fire will change the piece according to its own power, and that someone with absolute ideas would not be happy working with clay.

"The flowing of my ideas has come predominantly from the varied aspects of nature. The sounds and silences of nature are at times very difficult to hear. One must devote time not only to listening, but also to finding places where you can listen. I have listened to the silence of centered clay as it rises into a form of dignity - never shouting. I have also listened to the seasons, each different in its impact upon my senses; to words, some meaning much and others very little; to fire, which can change the course of a life in many ways; to water flowing from a small spring to the ocean. In striving to harmonize the many aspects of clay I am trying to develop a genuine sensitivity to the freedom, strength, and simplicity of my forms and the forms of nature."

Linda Rohrbach-Austerberry