Born in Fayetteville, North Carolina, Downing graduated from UNC Chapel Hill with a BFA in sculpture with extensive coursework in English and Psychology. He has taught Art for thirty years in Durham, the last 23 years at Durham School of the Arts and the Durham Arts Council.

 

“Working with high school students has stretched me, expanding my view of the world. My work with adults helps balance the scale. I have enjoyed working with serious young artists and mature artists who want to make art materials speak their truth.”

 

His exposure to clay as an art form goes back to making clay apples with stick stems in a neighbor’s stream as a child. “Clay has always fascinated and challenged me. It is such a basic material. Clay is both free and temperamental, formless, yet loaded with potential. It holds the stories of our ancestors but is fragile and easily destroyed. The scrap piles and shards speak through the generations. I find clay a great teaching material, full of life lessons, self-correcting in its limitations and possibilities.”

 

Downing’s work has been seen in the triangle at Somerhill Gallery for 20 years, Raleigh Contemporary Gallery, now, the Mahler Gallery for more than 25 years. Special invitations have included the National Teapot Shows at Cedar Creek Gallery, work featured at Craven Allen Gallery and Greenhill Center for North Carolina Art. In addition to solo shows with the Durham Arts Council, He has participated in several faculty shows with both Durham Arts Council and Durham School of the Arts.