The Potters Cast

Minah Kim was born in 1991 in a small and complex city with lots of people and buildings. The city was always lit up with lights even in very late night til dawn. Minah often enjoyed playing with her camera and catching those lights from the buildings. To Minah the lights shining over the window seemed like stars. Naturally she got to think about the life of individual a lot in the city that never sleeps. The individuals she observed were usually her peers. She became more interested to observe the changes happening around those individuals. She constantly drew and tried different material rather than only-using ceramics and has interests in philosophy.

Tim See fancies himself as a studio potter that loves wood firing. Tim's work is primarily wheel thrown industrial forms, decorated with a sprawling narrative. When Tim is not stacking wood, he teaches at a wonderful studio called Clayscapes.

In 1993 Simon Levin fell in love with the movement of flame through a wood-kiln. Its sensuous quality is something Simon seeks to capture in his work. This quest led Simon to an M.F.A. from the University of Iowa. Recently the work explores the deep, dark, primal connections between all of us. Simon owns Mill Creek Pottery in Wisconsin, where he and his apprentices work to advance the cause of wood-fired pottery.

Richard Peterson is currently working on his MFA candidacy at The University of Arkansas, and received a BFA at the University of Akron in Ohio. Richard has spent almost all of his life within Northeast Ohio, which is where most of Richard's narrative is based. Recently Richard dove into graduate school headfirst where he is currently continuing his education and expansion as an artist, as well as an individual. Richard's work has been published in Clay Times December 2014 issue, Graphic Clay: Ceramic Surfaces and Printed Image Transfer Techniques (Lark Books 2015). and will be published in American Craft Magazine in Feb-March of 2016. Richard has also had the privilege to have his work shown at Charlie Cummings Gallery, Forum Artspace, AKAR Gallery, Red Star Studios, Baltimore Clayworks, Morean Art Center, and awarded Honorable Mention at "Drink This" juried by Sam Chung at Workhouse Ceramics in Virginia.

Born in New York City, Lisa Neimeth was influenced early on by the multiples of objects and icons surrounding her, as a young collector. After college, Lisa returned to New York City, where among other things, she sold lemonade on the streets and studied ceramics in private sculpture studios. Creating art remained in the background while pursuing Social and Community work, another passion, throughout the five Boroughs. Traveling was key for her after receiving two Masters Degrees in Social Work and Urban Planning. She traveled extensively throughout Mexico, Central and South America where she was deeply influenced by color, texture and forms observed there. Lisa moved to San Francisco in 1994, drawn there by the open land, light and ocean. She continued doing Community Work while contemplating new relationships between materials in her sculpture work. In 1997, she gave birth to the first of 2 children - leading her to change her focus and to do art more full time. Capturing images and applying them to clay enables her to create a vision of whimsy and directed randomness. She now focuses mainly on creating rustic, yet refined tableware. She describes them as photographs of her observations transcribed onto clay and made to be used. They incorporate impressed vintage and found object imagery with hand-etched detailing. Her work continues to be influenced by her surroundings and travels and extended time she spends on her property in Northern New Mexico. She has been featured in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, House Beautiful, Anthology Magazine, Food and Wine, C magazine, San Francisco Chronicle, Western Art and Architecture, Sunset, California Home and Design as well as multiple features in high profile design blogs.

Paul Jessop started potting when he was twelve-years old. Paul's first full time pottery gig started when he was eighteen. Eventually he gave up the potter's life by the time he was twenty-three. For the next 20 years Paul spent his time selling ceramic tiles to architects and designers in central London. In 2008 Paul lost his job when he was made redundant. It was then that Paul returned to his first love and started Barrington Pottery. Paul is making "Simple Honest Pottery" based on traditional west country slip ware.

Di Marshall makes a brand of pottery dinnerware called Wonki Ware. Di started off with herself and one other potter 15 years ago and Di is now employing 60 potters. Di trained these potters up using the slab-rolling method of draping the clay over moulds. Wonki Ware is now world-wide suppliers of thier brand.

Jeremy Randall Ceramics was officially started in 2009, with energy placed on making, showing, and selling work nationally and internationally. Retail shows in the New England area have been a new venture with pleasant results, and being able to have personal interactions with my audience has been wonderful. Thank you for visiting, and hope to see you at a show or out in the ceramic world in the future.

Alison Smiles currently shares a studio/small retail space in a small suburb of Adelaide, South Australia. Currently, Alison's group is the only group independent ceramics studio in their city. Alison loves working with clay as it has also afforded her the opportunity to travel and connect with makers from all over the world.

Thomas Quayle graduated an Honours Degree from the National Art School in 2013. Since completing his studies Thomas has been a successful applicant to Bondi's Sculpture by the Sea exhibition two years running as well as receiving the Clitheroe mentorship prize in 2014 through Sculpture by the sea. Thomas also attended a mentoring program in South Korea working with Korean artist Young-Sil Han.

Selected as an Emerging Artist by Ceramics Monthly (2002), Martina Lantin received her MFA from NSCAD University. She has completed several residencies and her work has been recognized in numerous juried and invitational exhibitions internationally. Martina currently teaches at the Alberta College of Art and Design.

Gunyoung Kim was born and raised in Seoul, South Korea. She received her Bachelors of Fine Art in Ceramics from Kook-Min University in Korea in 2010 and her MFA from The Ohio State University in 2014 where she developed her studio practice and gained teaching experience. After graduate school, Gunyoung was the long-term ceramic artist-in-residence at Lawrence Art Center in Lawrence, Kansas. She is currently a short-term resident at the Archie Bray Foundation in Helena, MT.

Originally trained as an architect, Sandra Torres eventually transferred her creative outlet into clay work. Sandra got started at an experimental studio in Mexico City, and then continued working in California in different studios. Sandra traveled in Mexico and China to learn about traditional techniques. An apprenticeship with Pieter Stockmans in Belgium, had a great impact on her work. Later Sandra was an Artist in Residence at the ICSHU in Hungary and since then she has established her home studio in Ojai, CA.

Ronan Kyle Peterson grew up in Poplar, NC, a small community deep in the mountains of western North Carolina. Currently, Ronan maintains Nine Toes Pottery, a ceramics studio in Chapel Hill, NC, which produces highly decorative and functional earthenware vessels. His work is drawn from processes of growth and decay in the natural world and is translated into a ceramic comic book interpretation of both real and imagined phenomena.

Sam Scott has been a ceramic artist working in Shoreline, WA since 1968. After graduating from the University of Washington and setting up his studio in 1975, Sam has continued his studio practice and taught at area colleges. Sam's work consists of three distinct styles including functional and non-functional objects.

Noel Bailey is a utilitarian potter and teacher, currently living in the Mad River Valley, Vermont. Noel was born and raised in Southwest Colorado. He has a M.F.A. from Southern Illinois University Carbondale and a B.A. in Art Education from the University of Northern Colorado. He has had several residencies at Laloba Ranch Clay Center in Steamboat Springs, Colorado.

Leili Towfighcreates wheel-thrown and hand-built stoneware pieces in a studio at MIT in Cambridge. She’s enchanted by the rich ceramics traditions of her parents’ home countries—England and Iran—and creates work inspired by nature, mathematics and biology, in addition to the decorative techniques of sliptrailing, carving, sgraffito and nerikomi.

Influenced by Donna Haraway's Cyborg Manifesto and the cyberpunk classic Ghost in the Shell, his is figure sculptures investigate gender using the cyborg. In addition to sculpture he produces a line of vessels with irreverent characters on them. Rob is currently faculty at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia.

After earning an MFA from Alfred University in 1990, Eric Van Eimeren moved to Montana to become a resident artist at the Archie Bray foundation. At the end of his residency in1993, he set up a pottery studio, and has enjoyed living and working in Helena ever since. You can find his pots in collections and kitchens throughout the U.S. and abroad.

Zach Houillion is a high school senior at St. Mark's school of Texas. Zach is going into his fourth year of pottery doing primarily wheel thrown work, Lately Zach has pursued carving his pieces as well.

Derek Reeverts grew up in rural Illinois surrounded by faith and farming. He received his MFA in ceramics from Miami University of Ohio in 2009 and his BFA in ceramics from Western Illinois University in 1999. He has been the Ceramics area Teaching Lab Specialist for the University of Florida since 2013. His work continues to be a part of many regional, national, and international exhibitions and is represented in many private collections.

Sarah Pike makes slab-built, functional pots on the edge of a little ski town in the Rocky Mountains of British Columbia, Canada. If you went to Fernie, you would probably find her in her studio, which is just off the highway, next to the beaver pond and under the Lizard Range. Unless, of course, she is out doing her other favorite things… playing in the mountains, eating food somewhere or digging in the garden. Sarah studied ceramics at ACAD in Calgary, the University of Colorado, Boulder and the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis. Her pottery is inspired by many things, including the landscape around her home, the crazy rich history of pottery, specifically Japanese and Islamic ceramics, but also by antique tinware, textured metal, and old things you might find in barns.

Lora Rust is a studio potter and pottery instructor in Atlanta, Ga. Lora shares her love of working in clay teaching beginning and intermediate pottery classes at Callanwolde Fine Arts Center in Atlanta, including focus on the soda firing process. She also teaches hands on and demonstration workshops regionally. Lora creates heirloom quality porcelain table and serve ware, fired to cone 6 oxidation and soda. Her goal is to bring a touch of artistry and elegance to the home.

Heidi Fahrenbacher is a ceramic artist from Plainwell, MI that creates slipcast ceramics with vibrant colors and images that observe a simple moment in time. Heidi loves ceramics and, until recently, was throwing everything on the wheel until she had hip surgery.

A native to Minnesota, Mark Skudlarek began his fascination with wood-firing while living in the pottery village of, La Borne, France. In 1983, he began a four year apprenticeship in Connecticut with Todd Piker at the Cornwall Bridge Pottery and in and in 1988, moved to Cambridge, Wisconsin to establish Cambridge Wood-fired Pottery.

Martha Grover is a functional potter, living in Bethel, Maine creating thrown and altered porcelain pieces. She attended Bennington College in Vermont, where she received her undergraduate degree in Architecture. Martha received her MFA in ceramics from the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. She received the Taunt Fellowship at the Archie Bray Foundation. Her work can be found at galleries throughout the country. Her work has been published in Ceramics Monthly, Clay Times, Pottery Making Illustrated, 500 Pitchers, 500 Platters and Chargers, and 500 Vases.

Tom Budzak is a ceramic artist living in Tempe, AZ with his wife Melissa, his newborn son Ezekiel and dog Boba Fett. He received his BFA from Arizona State University and his MFA from New Mexico State University. He is an Adjunct Professor at South Mountain Community College and a Master Instructor at the Mesa Art Center.

Roberto Lugo was born in the Kensington neighborhood of Philadelphia. Roberto was his mother’s third child by the time she was 21. Growing up Roberto was exposed to prevalent drug use and gang activity. The crack epidemic left half of the houses in Roberto's neighborhood abandoned. His childhood neighborhood gave very little hope for a future outside of its boundaries. Roberto didn’t have any experience with art in high school. He did, however, take up writing graffiti with his cousins on the streets of Philadelphia. After moving away from Philadelphia Roberto found himself in a community college taking art classes. After undergraduate studies Roberto realized how important it was to share his experiences through presentation as well. In 2011 Roberto had an opportunity to speak at the National Council of Education for the Ceramic Arts in Seattle, WA. His lecture was entitled “Activism Through Ceramics”. The following year at the NCECA Conference held in Houston, Texas where Roberto delivered another lecture titled “From the Wheel to the Wall”, a presentation on how graffiti relates to ceramics.

Rachel Wood is a nationally and internationally recognized potter who exhibits extensively in the UK and overseas. Her work is recognized for its complex and textured surfaces on vessels which are pinched and coiled, or thrown and manipulated.

Mariko Paterson has been around the ceramic block. Born and raised in Vancouver, she first attended Langara College and then completed her bachelor's degree at the Alberta College of Art. Kent State University was her next destination where she knocked out her MFA degree. While she has also made New York, Michigan, Ohio and Manitoba as just some points of her professional pursuits, Halifax, Nova Scotia now serves as ceramic headquarters. Forage Studios strives to produce a subversive strain of wheel thrown and ceramic work as well as serve the community with an education of the arts. Historical meets handbuilding where her sculptural interests lay and a dalliance with the pottery wheel has resulted in both forms and a forum for exploring her love of creamy cone 6 clay bodies and illustration.

This is a special episode of The Potters Cast. Former guests, Steve Kelly and Brian R Jones, join me in a live interview recorded in Georgies for Georgies special 50th anniversary open house. We had a great conversation about social media and building a business.

Jessica Brandl holds an MFA in Ceramics from The Ohio State University and a BFA from The Kansas City Art Institute. Her work has been shown nationally and internationally in numerous solo and group exhibitions, including “Ceramic Top 40,” and at RISD Rome. Her work addresses the object as artifact, and its recollection of human time and environment.

Joel Cherrico is a potter, entrepreneur and former author for the American Craft Council website. After graduating college with a degree in art, he immediately launched his business, Cherrico Pottery, LLC. For the past five years, he has supported his livelihood full-time by creating and selling handmade pottery.

Portland, Oregon potter Steve Kelly’s work is rooted in rural Asian ceramic traditions but offers an American urban sensibility. He draws inspiration from street art, typography, and the kinetic human form.

Yoko Sekino-Bové was born in Osaka, Japan. She graduated from Musashino Art University in Tokyo, Japan with a Bachelor of Fine Art degree in graphic design before moving to the United States. She worked as a commercial designer in Los Angeles before her passion for ceramic art took her onto a new path. She received a Master of Fine Art degree in Ceramics from the University of Oklahoma in 2004. After working as an apprentice at Rowantrees Pottery in Blue Hill, Maine, to study tableware production, Yoko served as an artist-in-residence in the ceramic department of the Armory Art Center in West Palm Beach, Florida from 2004 to 2005. Her ceramic works are featured in “500 cups”, “500 platters and chargers”, “500 teapot volume 2”, “Humor in Craft” and “Surface decoration techniques for potters” as well as other craft books and a wide variety of periodicals including “American Craft” and “Ceramics Monthly” magazines. Her technical articles are featured on “Ceramics Monthly” and “The Pottery Making Illustrated” magazines occasionally. Yoko was selected as one of the “emerging artists 2011” by the Ceramic Arts Daily Council.

Beyond being the chief curator and proprietor of YONDER, artist Linda Fahey spends much of her time in the shop's studio, making her own line of ceramics, all inspired by a life lived by the coast. At YONDER, her open studio is a space for exploration, innovation, and collaboration, where she welcomes customers, artists, and friends to pull up a seat at her worktable for conversations and creating. Her work is shown at respected shows in the Bay Area throughout the year, and is available nationwide through design-focused stores such as Anthropologie, Voyager, and Rare Device.

As the artist and designer behind Paper & Clay, I make modern functional ceramics that are designed to be both beautiful and very usable. I draw inspiration from my love of Scandinavian design in the design of my forms and development of glazes, but also in a broader sense. I love having simple but well made elements as a part of my own home, and I strive to create work that fits that form.

John Britt is a studio potter in Bakersville, North Carolina who has been a potter and teacher for over 30 years. He lives in mountains of western North Carolina although he grew up in Dayton, Ohio. John is primarily a self-taught potter who has worked and taught extensively, both nationally and internationally, at universities, colleges and craft centers, including the Penland School of Crafts where he served as the Clay Coordinator and then, as the Studio’s Manager. He is the author of the “The Complete Guide to High-Fire Glaze; Glazing & Firing at Cone 10” which was published by Lark Books in 2004, and his most recent book “The Complete Guide to Midrange Glazes: Glazing and Firing at Cone 6” which will be published October 2014. He also has and two e-books (PDF’s): “The Quest for the Illusive Leaf Bowl and Other Assorted Articles” and “Aventurine Glazes”. He also has a DVD produced by Ceramics Daily entitled: "Understanding Glazes: How to Test, Tweak and Perfect Your Glazes”. He was the juror for the book; "500 Bowls”, Technical Editor for “The Art and Craft of Ceramics”, and the “Ceramic Glaze: The Complete Handbook” by Brian Taylor and Kate Doody. He has written numerous articles for ceramics publications including: Ceramic Review, Studio Potter, Clay Times, Ceramic Technical, New Ceramics, The Log Book and is a frequent contributor to Ceramics Monthly.

Brice Dyer received his BFA in ceramics and sculpture from the University of North Texas. After graduating in the spring 2012 he moved to St. Petersburg Fl where he was a Artist-in-Residence at the St. Pete Clay Company. After spending two years in Florida he moved to Kansas City to be a Foundation Resident at Redstar Studios. His work is influenced by geology and landscape and is primarily hand-built.

A professional potter for more than 45 years, Bill van Gilder began his clay work at age 15, as a studio apprentice to the late Byron Temple. During the following years, he apprenticed in Ireland and England, and received a degree from Harrow School of Art, London, England. He then established and managed two large teaching/training centers in Southern Africa (Lesotho & Swaziland) under the auspices of The World Bank. Bill returned to the U.S. in 1979 and established a studio and craft gallery atop South Mountain in Central Maryland, which he continues to operate today.

Molly Allen is an emerging sculptural ceramic artist. Originally from Colorado, She completed her BFA at Sierra Nevada College as the 2014 Valedictorian. Since then she has completed artist in residency programs at Watershed Center for the Ceramics Arts and Mendocino Art Center. Molly’s work uses animal forms to explore the human subconscious.

Shannon Garson is an Australian ceramic artist specialising in thrown, decorated porcelain. Her work is available at galleries and stores and in her online store. Shannon's studio is based in a small rural town of Maleny in the hinterland of the Sunshine Coast. Each piece of porcelain is unique, the result of many hours work. In addition to her artistic practice Shannon runs innovative workshops incorporating nature in porcelain and surface design for schools and small groups. Shannon's drawings about the strange beauty and wonder to be found in the marginalized eco-systems of the littoral zone. Details of shorelines, rock pools and coastal wallum scrub are revealed in the sgraffito and oxide drawings that crawl over the surface of these delicately thrown porcelain vessels. Exhibition work is available from these galleries. "I want the surface of the pot to be part of the drawing, not just a surface for the drawing to sit on. I want the whole pot to be experienced, from the weight of it as you pick it up, the texture, the drawing, colour, smoothness of the glaze, all the elements draw the viewer into experiencing the vessel."

Michael Kline is a potter working in the mountains of North Carolina. The Penland School of Crafts brought Michael to the area to be a resident artist in 1998 and he has called it home ever since. Michael also keeps an online journal called "Sawdust & Dirt" where he chronicle his life as an artist.

Danielle Clare Pomorski is Ceramics and Theatre artist from Erie, PA. She has been working with clay since 2003. She has studied at Ohio Wesleyan University under Kristina Bogdanov. In 2009 she moved to Athens, Greece where she was taught by a couple that were both third generation Greek potters. In 2010 she moved to Brooklyn and took a few classes at Choplet taught by Damien Garcia. She is now working at Clayspace1205 at the tippy top of Greenpoint, Brooklyn.

Alex Matisse grew up in a converted white clapboard church in the center of a small New England town in a family of artists. For three years, Alex apprenticed in the workshops of North Carolina potters Matt Jones and Mark Hewitt. Their work combines traditions, from the Anglo-Oriental school of Leach, Hamada, and Cardew to the folk pottery of the south-eastern United States and many places between. In their workshops Alex learned to love simple pots; adorned or bare, quiet and strong, they make their place comfortably in the home and speak to the thousands of years of pots before them, and all that is to come. Alex's work is made in a fusion of pre-industrial country traditions in both process and material. It is fired in a large wood burning kiln and made of as many local materials as the chemistry will allow. Ales believes in the beautiful object; that there are inescapable aesthetic truths, physical attributes, that remove time and place from the defining characteristics of the made object. These objects can be viewed today or many years from now and be understood as beautiful. Though their quotidian value may become antiquated, their aesthetics will save them. Alex believes in making pots that carry this truth while, as Henry Glassie told Alex in passing one day, holding one hand to the past with the other outstretched to the future.

Jessica Kanaley is a ceramic artist who celebrates her American roots with pottery inspired by the garden. She was raised in Rochester NY where she graduated with a bachelors of science from Nazareth College. After working in special education she completed an apprenticeship at the Rochester Folk Art Guild and founded the business Old Soul Clay. Jessica is currently participating in residencies and seeking adventure through her travels.

Julie Wiggins is a full time studio potter living and working in Charlotte, North Carolina. She graduated from East Carolina University in 2001 with a BFA in Ceramics. In 2005, she received an honorary degree from the Jingdezhen Ceramic Institute in China, where she focused her studies on traditional Eastern techniques. Her work has been shown in galleries across the country, including AKAR Gallery, Charlie Cummings Gallery, CrimsonLaurel Gallery, and Lark & Key. Julie’s work has been featured at the American Craft Council and the Mint Museum of Craft + Design, as well as several national conferences and exhibitions, including NCECA. Julie has over a decade of experience as an educator and will be one of the presenters at the Functional Ceramics Workshop in 2016.

Guillermo Cuellar has been making wheel thrown stoneware pots since 1980. Originally from Venezuela, he moved to the St. Croix River Valley in Minnesota in 2005. He treasures the breathtaking beauty that can be found in pots made for daily use in the home for preparing and sharing food.

Nancy Gallagher received her BFA from Kutztown University, originally in graphic design, then further studied functional pottery for four years with Bill van Gilder. Her recent work in earthenware both harkens back to historical pots, while maintaining a current graphic brush work and textural ethic.

Julie Covington is a potter working in Asheville, NCs River Arts District. Julie feels lucky to be surrounded by an amazing community of craftspeople, farmers, musicians, healers, and teachers who regularly inspire her to be a better potter! Julie makes sturdy, comfortable tableware decorated in a variety of playful designs.