My name is Erin Nguyen (Taphorn) and I grew up in a small town tucked away in the Northwest corner of Iowa. I was blessed to have a phenomenal high school visual arts program where I took my first ceramics class my sophomore year. Due to the nurturing and molding from my talented and gifted art teachers, Ron Netten and Anita Coon, I fell in love with clay and have been working with the medium ever since. From there, I studied clay with Gerry Punt at Augustana College in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, earning my Bachelor of Arts in Art and Secondary Education. Gerry instilled in me the necessity to ask questions and gain experiences. After earning my degree, I continued to work with clay at Augustana while teaching elementary art at West-Lyon Community School District for two years. Soon after, my husband and I uprooted ourselves to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania where I taught inner-city art and worked on my artwork at The Clay Studio. I became the middle school art teacher in my hometown of Storm Lake, Iowa back in 2011, and I am now teaching 3D Design & Exploring the Visual Arts at Roosevelt High School in Sioux Falls. I am happily back in the Midwest where I continue to explore and create clay vessels.
I am a ceramic artist who focuses on hand-built sculptures, functional and nonfunctional. I am continuing my understanding of the natural world. As an observer of the world around me, my pieces help me comprehend complex relationships through simple forms. By replicating shapes and textures I experience in my environment, I am attempting to better understand how to create visually interesting objects. Mother Earth is a master of the principles of designs. I try to recreate these intriguing relationships from nature’s guidance. I am inspired by her intuitive understanding of textures, rhythm, and movement. As I carve into the surfaces of my pieces or start piecing the artwork together, I am surprised how the human experience can become more tangible. As I reflect on what I am creating and how I am creating it, I see my own story emerge. I am one who takes time to process what I am feeling. My studies help me understand my experiences. My hope is, as people view my artwork, they connect to my journey with their own experiences and stories.