Beth Greenleaf

About

Beth Greenleaf (b. 1993, Pennsylvania USA) received a Bachelor of Art in studio art, as well as a Bachelor of Science in Archaeology, from Southern Methodist University in 2016. She was awarded the Deputy Vice Chancellor’s International Scholarship to pursue a masters in Ceramics and Glass at the Royal College of Art as a member of the 2023/2024 cohort.

Beth’s work explores the human experience, especially dealing with grief and chronic illness, through the use of hybridism, folkloric life, and the deification of human instincts. She views the pieces much like the living stories often seen in folklore. Each piece has a tale- the story is given life as it’s told, death when it ends, and is reborn by the next storyteller. Her pieces give a voice to these stories, articulating this cycle of rebirth through the making and viewership of each work. Her functional pieces additionally weave their way into their users daily rituals, and in that way gain a new life, completely separate from any original story. 

Greenleaf creates narratives through the tactile nature of clay; allowing for a physical, visual, and occasionally functional experience of supernatural stories. Her practice engages the idea of clay as an allegory for the flesh of creatures that dwell in the realm of dreams, and the liminal spaces of our world. She invites the viewer to become the next storyteller and partake in the rebirth. 

You can find her portfolio online at Mythsinclay.com or her work and process on instagram at Myths_in_clay.