Suze’s stoneware pots subtly suggest human figure and character as she manipulates her forms by altering them after they are thrown.  Handbuilt elements , made from slabs, are integrated with thrown parts to create functional forms that have personality and verve.  An integral part of her work includes surface decoration to enhance form by patterning and painting slips and glazes for salt-firing.  Her mark-making is strongly influenced by studying historical ceramics from cultures in Japan, Crete, Chile, China,  and Native North Americans.  The springboard for form and function started with the study of  Bernard Leach’s ideas, and continue to feed her interpretation of altered forms that function well.

Suze received her MFA from Louisiana State University in 1992,  and was an artist in residence at Penland School of Crafts from 1992-1996.  She owns and operates Fork Mountain Pottery with her husband and fellow potter, Kent McLaughlin.  They live and work in the mountains of western North Carolina.