I graduated from Denison University with a BA in Art. I have been a member of the Potters Guild for over 30 years. I have taught pottery at the Main Line Art Center, Kendall and the Community Arts Center. I produce wheel thrown functional pottery that is high fired in a gas kiln. My pottery has been shown in over forty craft galleries.

My own growth as a ceramic artist revolves around continuing my exploration and education, applying my influences and inspirations to a medium that satisfies me on a profound level. My sculptures and decorative pieces are explorations of this process.

I am a juried member of the Pennsylvania Guild of Craftsmen and Wallingford Potters Guild and teach ceramics and raku firing at Community Arts Center, Wallingford, Pa and Decorative Painting and Dollmaking at Mainline Art Center, Haverford, Pa and run a series of workshops at my studio in doll making, encaustic painting and concrete sculpture in Wyndmoor, Pa.

My work appears in Artista Gallery, Mt Airy, Philadelphia, Past Present and Future in Ardmore, PA and Tyme Gallery in Havertown, PA and Generator Gallery in San Miquel de Allende, Mexico.

I also works in Concrete, Encaustic and Fabric.

The foundation of my work is the attraction and repulsion between two diametric opposites: fascist symmetry and organic randomness. I am constantly engaged to span the distance between these two poles with wheel-thrown work providing steady control and hand-built sculptures providing Bacchus-like unpredictability. It is also part of my passion to juxtapose these disciplines in the same piece with organic structures breaking through the clean and homogenous walls of bowls and vases. This tenuous relationship provides both inspiration and restriction, which help to create and destroy boundaries in my work. Additionally, one of the most energizing parts of ceramics is the multi-dimensional relationships that are created during the entire creative and technical process. From the inception of the design to the display and use of the finished product, connections abound! The physical connection with the clay in its various stages, the exchange of ideas and interpretations with fellow artists, and the interaction between the finished piece and its ephemeral owner all create a web that connects the physical world of cold, hard, clay with the dream-world of ideas and fantasy.

Ceramics have been part of my life for the past 30 years and I never cease to be impressed by clay’s multiple qualities. I love testing the limits and experimenting by adding things like  sand, charcoal or soft stone -- anything that can add texture or burn out, leaving craters and other irregular markings.  I prefer working with a clay body that contains a lot of grog, which I often like to accentuate.

My work is mostly large and not always functional. Simple asymmetric forms with minimal decoration are my preference. I am strongly inspired by nature -- rock formations, tree bark, decaying wood, etc., often blending opposites into one piece.

Carrying on a century long family tradition in ceramics, Patricia Tolton is a tile artist. Her ancestors immigrated from England finding work in Ohio potteries. Her ceramic interest started with collecting pottery. Patricia, with a degree in Horticulture and having owned her own landscape business, has an intimate knowledge of the natural world. With her family heritage rooted in the Arts and Crafts Movement, Patricia’s work is handcrafted in her Downingtown Pa studio. There she combines her experience as a landscape designer and family history to create her modern version of Arts and Crafts tile.

When I work in clay, and paint each form, I try to act intuitively. Each form and image is a culmination of my experiences and a page torn out of my sketchbook. I depict figures and landscape, relying on gestural lines to generate the overall sentiment.