Artist Lauren Martin has a strong, visceral reaction every time her fingers touch the cold, damp clay on her potter’s wheel.

“I often feel that as I lose myself to the magic of throwing, my mind and artistic freedom grows and turns in sync with the mesmerizing force that urges the clay into its shape,” she said recently.

This October, a new exhibition at the Austin Peay Downtown Gallery will display several works created through this intuitive connection between flesh and mud. The show, “The Vessel,” will feature pieces by Martin, Ken Shipley, Katt Morgan and Caroline Tuzenue. It opens Oct. 7 with a reception from 5 to 8 p.m. and runs through Oct 30.

Last year, the APSU Center of Excellence for the Creative Arts leased a building in downtown Clarksville to provide gallery space for APSU alumni and faculty. This new exhibit features works by both former students and an active professor.

Martin earned her B.A. in art education from APSU in 2007, and currently works as an elementary art teacher in Montgomery County. Shipley is an associate professor of art at APSU, and in his 30-year career, he has exhibited works regionally, nationally and internationally.

Morgan earned a BFA from APSU with a concentration in painting and ceramics, and for the last two years has worked as a glaze and stain chemist in the laboratory of Florim USA. Tuzenue graduated from recently from APSU with her BFA with a concentration in ceramics and has worked as an art teacher since 2008.

The gallery, located at 116 Strawberry Alley in downtown Clarksville, is open from noon to 4 p.m., Tuesdays through Saturdays. For more information on this space or the exhibit, contact APSU associate professor of art Barry Jones at 931-221-7330 or jonesb@apsu.edu.