Artist Bio or Résumé
Salem artist Dorothy Arthur taught visual arts in the Salem Public Schools for 26 years before retiring in 2009 to focus more on her lifelong interest in working with clay. She received several awards during her teaching career including 1998 Salem Rotary Educator of the Year, 2004 Massachusetts Elementary Art Educator of the Year and 2009 Massachusetts Art Educator of the Year from the Massachusetts Art Education Association.
Dorothy named her home based business Dot’s Pots and began creating work both utilitarian and decorative, selling at local craft fairs and venues. Her decorative work includes a series of lantern collections that combined with her interests in architecture, nature and travel. The ideas for the motifs of the architectural lantern cutouts were inspired by the various window styles of historic Salem buildings including Old Town Hall, Hamilton Hall, the Peabody Essex Museum, St. Peter’s Church as well as many homes on Federal and Chestnut Streets. Her nature lantern series celebrates the beauty of landscape, seascape, and creatures that abound. Her travel series include lanterns inspired by trips to Italy, Ireland, France and Spain.
Her current work includes a collection of wheel thrown tide clocks that she decorates using a variety of ceramic techniques including carving, sgraffito and underglaze painting. The motif designs are representative of the sea and coastal shores.
