Colleen Toledano, ceramic and mixed media artist and associate professor of design at Buffalo State, invites us into a deeply personal and process-driven practice where making becomes a way of understanding life itself. Working primarily with porcelain while incorporating materials like resin, wood, and found elements, Colleen creates intricate sculptural works that draw from the ornate language of historical ceramics, particularly Wedgwood, while reinterpreting them through a contemporary, autobiographical lens.

Her vessels act as powerful metaphors for the body, the self, and the idea of “home”, objects that appear contained and refined from a distance, but reveal complexity, tension, and transformation up close. Composed of hundreds of hand-formed elements, delicate leaves, strawberries, and layered forms, her work explores the intersection of fragility and strength, chaos and control. These forms trace the evolving roles of mother, artist, and partner, reflecting how identity expands, overlaps, and reshapes over time.

Colleen’s process is rooted in intuition and experimentation. Rather than beginning with a fixed outcome, she allows meaning to emerge through making—testing clay bodies, assembling components, refining surfaces, and problem-solving through each stage. This iterative approach extends beyond objects into immersive installations, where she creates environments that invite curiosity, interaction, and reflection. From large-scale constructed spaces to meticulously crafted miniature worlds, her installations challenge perception and encourage viewers to reconsider the everyday.

Her work also reflects moments of adaptation and resilience, from navigating the layered demands of motherhood and creative practice, to rethinking how art is experienced during times of disruption, such as the pandemic. Whether building full-scale environments or 1:8 replicas of gallery spaces, Colleen explores how we relate to space, memory, and presence.

In this talk, Colleen shares how a lifelong instinct to make, shaped by family, craft traditions, and hands-on problem solving, has evolved into a multifaceted practice that spans fine art, fabrication, and design. Her story is one of persistence, curiosity, and the constant negotiation between control and letting go, where the act of making becomes both a personal language and a way to navigate change.