Local sculptor molds armadillos, butts, and nature

A ceramic armadillo gingerly lifts a foot atop a series of artist shelves. In the working studio above, half-finished clay butts lay behind a curtain of plastic, waiting for Sarah Wilder to arrive and mold them into the planters they will become.

Wilder, a potter at West Union Art Studios in Morganton, flipped the lights on in the studio just before discussing her art, what led her to the city, and why she stays.

“Pottery is the throughline,” she said, smirking. “Pottery is like a drug. You can’t not get a hit of that once you’re on it. It’s a little bit addicting.”

A self-described army brat, Wilder moved around often as a child with her family, even temporarily landing in Australia before living and attending college in Washington state.

Due to the ever-changing nature of her shifting addresses, Wilder’s parents never sprung for pottery equipment. She had to bide her time on waiting lists through high school just to attend a class and get her hands dirty.

“Then I finally did and it was just as exciting and exhilarating,” she said. “The bug bit just like I knew it would. … So, clay has always been the throughline and will always be a part of my art practice, but I do like to explore lots of things.”

According to Wilder, her brain works in 3-D.

Unlike classic sculptors, who meticulously detail their sketches with anatomically precise scribbles, Wilder lays out reference imagery, takes copious notes, and visually plots a skeleton of circles and lines.

She explained that her biggest influences come from artists like Beth Cavener, a fellow sculptor of animals, and Deb Schwartzkopf, a sculptor of forms based on bird physiques.

However, she said the influences she really likes to recognize are her college professors, Spencer Ebbinga, Steve Sobeck, and her first ceramics teacher, Eric Rempe.

“I always have to shout out all the teachers, the OGs, that put up with me and my crazy antics,” she said, smiling at old memories.

Her art, itself, funnels back to her passion for the environment around her. From animal figures to photography of plants to sculpted observations of the human body, Wilder said the concept of nature is one of the most alluring parts of Morganton, where she now resides.

HOW SHE CAME TO MORGANTON

“There’s always been a draw for me, somehow, for North Carolina,” Wilder said. “Just generally, like the phrase, ‘North Carolina.’ There’s something magical about it.”

Her husband, Bren, who is also a potter, had only one contingency: not the flat part of the state.

Thinking Asheville living, but not Asheville pricing, the Wilders drew circles on a map, slowly working their way out from “The Land of the Sky.”

Beginning in Hickory, but eventually landing in Morganton after a drive down U.S. 70, the views of the mountains caught their eyes and drew them in.

The friendly, nature-conscious residents cemented the deal.

“It feels like there’s an overarching interest in keeping natural spaces,” she said. “Keeping that balance of having growth, being able to support the people that live here with housing and jobs and everything like that, but at the same time having ‘Nature’s Playground.’ … Going out and having trails and natural places to be in and explore. That’s my favorite thing.”