Claire Thibodeau

Claire Thibodeau is a ceramic artist, designer, and educator based in Detroit, Michigan. Her work explores the relationship between domestic objects and sculptural form, examining how ceramics carry memory, ritual, labor, and permanence through everyday use. Drawing from historical decorative traditions, architectural surfaces, and functional pottery, she creates vessels, installations, wall-based works, and utilitarian objects that blur the boundaries between fine art and function.

Through an interdisciplinary approach that combines slip-casting, hand-building, and wheel-throwing, Thibodeau investigates material transformation, repetition, and the enduring presence of handmade objects within contemporary life.

She is also the owner of Thibodeau Ceramic Design, a studio dedicated to the research and production of contemporary ceramic objects. Through experimentation and material exploration, the studio approaches dishware and functional vessels through a fine art lens, investigating how everyday objects can become sites of inquiry and investigation. By combining traditional ceramic processes with contemporary design methodologies, Thibodeau Ceramic Design produces work that elevates functional forms while maintaining a strong commitment to
craftsmanship, research, and innovation.

Thibodeau is currently the Head of Ceramics and an Assistant Professor at the College for Creative Studies in Detroit, where she teaches courses in ceramic art and design. Thibodeau received her MFA in Ceramics from Cranbrook Academy of Art in 2022 and her BFA in Ceramics from Alfred University in 2015.