Two new resident artists will be spending the next few months at Pocosin Arts getting to know the community and enjoying the new facilities at the Riverside Studios and Main Street locations.

Stephanie Klausing and Samantha Clarke began their residencies in September and will leave in mid December.

Klausing explained her work.

“I am a ceramicist by dedication. I work in clay. I make ceramic sculpture and I make pottery. I occasionally work with glass. I don’t sculpt representationally. I sculpt abstractly,” said Klausing.

Klausing works 20 hours a week, typically in the Pocosin Arts’ office location.

“I assist Pocosin Arts doing anything from programming, clerical work, and advertising. Whatever they have a particular need for at the moment. For that 20 hours a week, they provide me with a studio space that I can work in and housing,” said Klausing.

Clarke graduated from ECU in May 2014 with a concentration in metals design.

“I work with steel, brass, and silver to create jewelry,” explained Clarke.

This summer Clarke traveled the eastern seaboard going to craft schools similar to Pocosin Arts.

Some of the places that Clarke went to included the Haystack Mountain School in Deer Isle Maine, Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts in Gatlingburg Indiana, and the Penland School of Crafts in Penland, NC.

“I help manage the Lodge and help everybody who comes through here. I also do minor work with the office the same 20 hours a week. Then I get a room and studio space here in the Riverside Studio’s location,” said Clarke.

Both Klausing and Clarke said Columbia is an interesting place to spend their residency.

“For me here is a really nice change of pace from Silicon Valley where I had been living. This is much slower and it is really nice. Also access to a facility, creative people, and scenery is a good thing,” said Klausing.

Clarke said she enjoys having her studio space in Columbia.

“With graduating I had to forgo my own studio space at ECU. Since then I have been traveling around. So I have not had the chance to have my space, process my work, and do things at my own pace. Pocosin Arts and Columbia have allowed me to do that, which is really exciting,” said Clarke.