Suzanne Hill has been working in clay for over 35 years. After receiving her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Rhode Island School of Design, she went on to study at Alfred College, earning of Master of Fine Arts in Ceramics. Since then, she has taught ceramic art in colleges, schools and camps, worked as an independent potter in New York City, and at the Corcoran Museum in Washington, DC. She lived overseas for over ten years; in Peru, Mexico, and Bangladesh; where she had the opportunity to study the traditional crafts of those countries and to work with indigenous potters. She enjoys working with all the possibilities clay has to offer, and produces a range of both functional and decorative pieces. Suzanne has a studio at the Emerson Umbrella, in Concord, Massachusetts where she works and teaches.

“I see myself as both an artist and a craftsperson. What separates fine craft from an ordinary object is that it goes beyond pure function and becomes a thing of beauty as well. Even my decorative work is based on functional shapes. As a potter, you are always working with the relationship of form to decoration. There are so many variables when glazing a piece that one must learn to set up the conditions and then to work with the glazing and firing process. It is a combination of some control as well as being guided by the process. As in nature, no two pieces are exactly the same. There is room for infinite variety. In my recent work I have been exploring the relationship between classical shapes and forms found in nature. In the most recent series, the pieces are inspired by my trips to the national parks of the American southwest. The colors of the landscape and the rock formations combine with the classical shapes of southwestern indigenous pottery to create unique works of art. The driftwood handles on some of the pieces are inspired by the dried juniper trees found in that stark and beautiful landscape.