Artist Statement

Girl dinners:

The "Girl Dinner" series is a playful exploration of nostalgia, indulgence, and the absurdity of daily life, all rendered in ceramic form. Each piece, from quirky food items to unexpected details like cigarettes, reimagines the familiar through the lens of humor and irreverence. By incorporating vintage dinnerware, I breathe new life into these forgotten objects, feeding both my love of collecting and my desire to challenge traditional notions of domesticity. These works invite joy and provoke thought, transforming the ordinary into an artful, whimsical still life that winks at both tradition and the contemporary moment.

Slugs:

My slug sculptures explore the beauty in the overlooked, the misunderstood, and the "disgusting." Crafted from ceramic clay, each slug is a testament to my background as a master gardener and permaculturalist, where I learned to appreciate the subtle complexities of nature—particularly creatures that are often vilified, like the humble slug. By shaping their bodies with clay and adding intricate patterns and illustrations through underglaze, I transform these figures into intricate, almost elegant beings that challenge conventional notions of beauty.

These slugs, which hang on walls or seem to crawl through space, are not just whimsical creatures—they are metaphors for those parts of ourselves we consider undesirable or inadequate. Just as I once felt as a gardener nurturing plants that were considered "pests," I’ve come to recognize that these very things often hold hidden value. With resin slime trails, I aim to embody the trails of experience—our path of growth, transformation, and acceptance—leaving marks that are both fleeting and permanent, just as our perceptions of beauty can be.

In reimagining the slug, I invite viewers to see beauty in the "icky," to reconsider what’s worthy of admiration, and to acknowledge the grace found in unexpected places.

Bio

A native to Columbia, SC, Tennyson is represented by Shain Gallery in Charlotte, NC. She is Vice President of the Midlands Clay Art Society and serves as the Holiday and Spring Sale Manager. She was chosen as Oconee County Park's artist in residence(2018) and contributed a public art project to the Atlantic Flyway Human Disturbance Project at Folly Beach's Lighthouse Heritage Preserve with SC Audubon in 2021, breathing life into the intersection of nature and art. Tennyson is an art contributor for Pepper Magazine, reinventing the comic into a monthly visual feast. The year 2023 witnessed Tennyson's solo exhibitions, "Ceramic Illustrations" at Black Creek Art Center (Hartsville, SC), and the enchanting "Be Our Guest" at the Public Works Art Center (Summerville, SC). Finishing out the year with public art, she was chosen to create a work for the City of Columbia's Columbia Streams Art in 2023/2024. Tennyson was also chosen as the Midlands Clay Art Society's Holiday Sale Manager for 2024 and voted in as Vice President for the 2025 executive board. Coming into the new year(2025), you can view her work at Westobou's Micro Gallery(Augusta, GA) with a solo show titled "are you going to eat that?", a group show at 701 Whaley(Columbia), and a solo with the Campbell Collective(Greenville,SC) in February and in October. 

Publication

https://boldjourney.com/news/meet-tennyson-corley/ 

https://canvasrebel.com/meet-tennyson-corley/

https://southcarolinavoyager.com/interview/check-out-tennyson-corleys-story/

https://levatacoleman.com/tennyson-corley-ceramic-illustrator/