Tony Santoyo is a painter, papermaker, and ceramicist from St. Paul, Minnesota and currently

is at Penland School of Craft, NC in the Core Fellowship program. Tony is a Mexican-American

that comes from immigrant parents and draws from his experience as a first-generation

immigrant, his own identity and environment, his sense of belonging and acceptance. He

explores overlapping layers, geometric forms and compositions through a self-intuitive process

that contrasts decoration and abstraction. Currently, Tony aims to capture the power of gesture

and emotion through dance and movement. Whether it is with the physical body or eye, he finds

that the intersection of craft and movement brings us the opportunity to find joy, beauty and

depth through the appreciation and expression of the body. In clay, the material is malleable

when constructed and with each color and brush stroke Tony is able to create this depth of

process and feeling. Defined by living between and within many cultures, Tony seeks to build a

sense of self-pride in his work by sharing his comfort with his intersectionality of identities.”