The Studio Potter

10/18/2026

In the 2005, vol. 34 no. 1, issue of Studio Potter that is focused on ceramic sculpture is an interview with ceramic artist and educator Norm Schulman by Stanley Mace Andersen entitled Daydreams and Fantasies. “This interview took place at the end of July 2005 in Norm's studio, which is dramatically located on a steep, rocky bank some seventy feet above a waterfall on the North Toe River, in the Blue Ridge Mountains of western North Carolina. Surrounded by rhododendron thickets, hardwoods, and pines, it is a few miles down the mountain from Penland School of Crafts.”

Stan asked Norm about after he left his first teaching job at the Toledo Museum School of Art and moved to Rode Island, “There was a teacher at RISD, Robert Archambeau. I had been his mentor while he was a student at Bowling Green State University, so when he came to Rhode Island he recommended me. By then I had been involved in glass, and knew as much about glass as anybody at that time, maybe, except Nick Labino and Harvey [Littleton]. And I liked the idea of glass, though I wasn't crazy about working with it. I thought the material was gorgeous, I still think so. I mentioned to them that I'd been involved in glass. The head of the fine arts department was Gil Franklin, and he had a sort of alter ego, a painter by the name of Gordon Peers. Peers let me know that he didn't care a whit about clay- clay would never go anywhere or do anything - but he'd love to see glass. I used the glass, literally, to save the clay program. I got a good budget and I set up a good program for clay.”

Stan and Norm continue with an in-depth discussion of Norm and Gloria’s life at Penland, Norm’s artwork, love of music and his creative process. Norm had a huge impact as an educator and artist on the founding of NCECA and was president of NCECA in 1966.

, , , , , , ,

Posted for by .schnabel.

10/11/2026

The 2005, vol. 34 no.1, issue of Studio Potter is dedicated to ceramic sculpture. There is a portfolio of ceramic artists work entitled Nine Voices. This includes the works of Jae Won Lee , John Utgaard , Allan Rosenbaum , Lisa Wolkow, Lee Stoliar, Cynthia Consentino , Jim Shrosbree , Deborah Sigel and Clare Twomey .

Jae Won Lee explained “I use a journal as an act of faith in recording the attentions of the moment. Like a diary, the word "journal" belongs to the literary world. When the language I use is exclusively visual, my journal becomes a sequence of small ceramic containers. The story I write doesn't have to be long, but it will take a long time to make it short. I understand the time involved in compression. I wish my ceramic containers to express a voice that is gently shaded with hope and also tinged with despair. I want my message in its empathy, simplicity, and sensitivity to evoke a sense of isolation.”

Allan Rosenbaum continued with “I first turned to figurative sculpture twenty years ago, after spending many years making work that was derived from the wheel, either pots or vessel-sculptures. When I sharpened my focus on making sculpture, I continued working with clay because it was familiar to me. In continuing the traditions of the ceramists who immediately preceded me, and whose work inspires me, I hoped- and still hope - to open the door for artists to explore ideas that are not tied to utility.”

Jim Shrosbree explained in his work that “Clay is fast, and it has a nice way of revealing new aspects of itself at each stage of development. Recently I have been working with other materials to extend or oppose ceramic surfaces. Relating the surface to a volumetric, hollow form, I am after a kind of inevitability that supports what I want to say and results in a wholeness of experience. Hollowness of form is metaphorically connected to the silent inner wakefulness of the artist.”

Posted for by .schnabel.

, , , , ,

10/07/2026

10/04/2026

The 2005, vol. 34 no.1, issue of Studio Potter begins with Concerning (Ceramic) Sculpture and introduction written by Mary Barringer . “The resulting discussion is a kind of Venn diagram of overlapping and distinct concerns. Where clay's physical properties are an animating force in someone's work, potters and sculptors find common ground. Where medium is downplayed in favor of other factors, the conceptual framework will take on larger significance - but in an era when making objects of any kind is an oddity, all makers are called on to create a conceptual framework for their work. It is the nature of clay to take myriad forms and serve multiple purposes. From the perspective of most of post-industrial culture, we're all at the same party.”

In this issue is Viola Frey (1933-2004): A Giant in Ceramic Sculpture () written by Elaine Levin. “Although not physically impressive or as colorfully attired as her giant figures, Viola Frey was a larger-than-life ceramic sculptor in every other way. Walking with the artist some years ago among her ceramic "people" was like wandering into an alternative universe, where assorted clay animals peeked from bushes and oversized plates hung above us. I was simultaneously cowed by the towering men-in-suits, troubled by the vague facial expressions on the women, and delighted by the expressive splashes of riotous color on all her figures. Surrounded by her work in the garden/studio and house, Frey viewed living with her sculptures as a luxury that enabled her to see over time where the objects did or did not make the impact she intended.

And making an impact was certainly intended. The gigantic cannot be ignored, and that may be one reason for their appearance in Frey's work and that of others working in clay in the late 1970s. Her colleagues in the Bay Alea included Peter Voulkos, Robert Arneson, Peter VandenBerg, Dennis Gallagher and Robert Brady, all of whom were beginning at that time to enlarge the scale of their work."

, , ,

Posted for by .schnabel.

10/02/2026

Newly Appointed Executive Director and Editor Chenoa Baker of Studio Potter

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – A LETTER FROM THE BOARD

Studio Potter is pleased to announce the naming of their new executive director and editor, Chenoa Baker. .e.baker

After five years as editor and three and a half years serving first as interim and then as executive director, we extend our deepest gratitude to Randi O’Brien for her extraordinary leadership and service to Studio Potter. During her tenure, Randi expanded the breadth and diversity of voices represented in the journal and led our scrappy team through significant organizational transitions with strength, transparency, and care. We are grateful that she will remain part of the Studio Potter community as an advisory board member.

As we celebrate Randi’s contributions, we are equally excited to welcome Chenoa Baker as our new executive director and editor. Chenoa brings a rich combination of editorial, curatorial, nonprofit, and community-building experience. We look forward to the energy, ideas, and leadership she will bring as Studio Potter enters its next chapter.

We are thrilled to bring you, our readers, along with us as we explore this new chapter.

Baker will begin her service October 1st, 2026. Baker brings nearly a decade of experience as a writer, editor, and curator based in Philadelphia.

To read the full announcement and learn more about Chenoa follow the link in our bio.

09/29/2026

Is apprenticeship right for you? Applications for the 2027 Grants for Apprenticeships program are due September 30. From forming clay to running a successful long-term business, the shared work and collaboration of an apprenticeship transmits skills and resources to the next generation of studio potters.

Tehara Anata, bowls in progress.
Robbie Lobell and Grace Roberts (center) with their kiln building team.
Anina Major shared photography methods with her apprentices.
David Roswell and Dylan Traister (standing) about to lay the arch on their rebuilt kiln.
Soso Capaldi, porcelain cups with carving and glaze.

09/28/2026

What A Cup Can Hold
By AUBREY SLOAN


This month's FREE article.

A cup does not require explanation.

People already know it through use, touch, routine, and memory.

Production pottery has always been about putting work into people's daily lives. Pots become part of morning routines, shared meals, kitchen shelves, and family histories. They move quietly through our lives as they are incorporated into daily rituals and collective gatherings.

Production pottery is the foundation of my ceramic practice. I've been making pottery since 2010. Every pot is an opportunity to explore a curve, refine a form, and better understand the material. Thousands of mugs, bowls, vases, and cups taught me craftsmanship through repetition.

As a production potter, this repetition had always been practical. You make another mug because that is the work. You refine the form because that is the work. You make hundreds because that is how you build a living.

Over time, repetition has also become a tool for me to express concepts and distribute ideas into the world through functional objects imbued with ideas of labor and my own personal experience. The ability to produce at scale became a way to build conceptual meaning through accumulation, allowing functional objects to carry ideas both individually and as part of a larger whole.

09/27/2026

In the 2005, vol. 33 no. 2, issue of Studio Potter, that is devoted to function, Gail Kendall wrote What's in a Pot? This comes from The Arrowmont Exhibition at the Utilitarian Clay Symposium.

Gail begins “The program this year included two panel discussions. The one I'm interested in reflecting on was called "The New American Aesthetic" and included Mark Pharis , Louise Harter, and Michael Corney . It was moderated by Susan Knowles, an independent curator and writer from Nashville, Tennessee.

Early in the presentation Mark uttered this phrase: "There is no American aesthetic." Did I imagine this? (I've been accused of hearing things before.) Or did he say, "There is no NEW American aesthetic" Either statement raises questions and, for me, the wish to examine them.”

“This notion of an American voice or aesthetic in pottery has been on my mind for some time. I visit England often. Much of my attachment to that country resides in the great ceramic collections to be found in many museums and country houses; the pottery industry past and present; and the objects made by potters working now. I am also interested in and influenced by the Arts and Crafts Movement and the Hamada-Leach tradition.”

Gail continues by considering the exhibition, “-works made by an older, established generation of artists as well as by younger potters recently out of graduate school - in light of the ways in which the works on view embodied a voice or an aesthetic that is "typically American". Could we dissect the emotional, cultural, and historical associations in these works to see if what they "say" in any way describes our national character?”

Gail goes on to discuss the how American culture is attracted to technology and her “stereotype of the so-called fine arts world today.”

“It's been enlightening to examine the Arrowmont exhibition from this particular perspective and to come to the conclusion that my own work reflects nearly all of the stereotypical attributes I've discussed.”

, , ,

Posted for by .schnabel.

09/25/2026

The Great Firing
By IAN RUSSELL-MCCOY


Those potters, despite their erroneous treatment of marginalized peoples, helped to mold a regional aesthetic or understanding of what successful atmospheric pots look like, largely imitating ceramic traditions and practices of Japan and Korea. These potters made this style of work their identity, and we don't then have an artist to separate from the art. We have a regional DNA of aesthetic beliefs and choices. And of course, with wood-fired pottery, you're always tasked with making the most with the materials you have available. This material availability is also seen in idea resource availability. The critique isn't that the old wood-firing tradition has no value, but that the community inherited an aesthetic system along with a set of cultural and ideological assumptions. Is it possible to interrogate those assumptions without rejecting the knowledge, beauty, and material intelligence that came from the tradition?

The ongoing questions, then, are: How do we use what is meaningful from that world, from the shard pile, if you will, and eschew the rest? How do you make a “great firing”?

The tides of the greater pottery world have shifted so rapidly in the post-COVID era that it is hard not to acknowledge. Our lives are extremely constructed in digital spaces, and there is a detached reaction to this meta-context that has created renewed value in the objects of our lives. Ceramics is queerer and more racially diverse. The people who occupy these spaces are not willing to look the other way when we see abuse of power within our communities. The demand for atmospheric firing mimics those movements towards centering marginalized peoples and their tactile experiences. Simultaneously, arts and humanities programming is being stripped of funding widely. Interesting timing!

To read the full article, follow the link in our bio to current articles.

09/23/2026

GUESS THE ARTIST

“We lived under Jim Crow laws: I attended segregated public schools, and all areas of our lives were segregated. I was eighteen years old before I shook hands or had an informal conversation with a white person. It wasn't that I didn't want to; I just never had the opportunity.”

Who do you think said this?

This is a quote from an interview published in Studio Potter, Winter/Spring 2014, Generation, Vol. 42, No. 1. Read more about the artist in the issue.

Think you know the artist? Tell us who you think it is, and tell us what you know about their life and work. If you have studied with them, or have a personal story or connection to share, we’d especially love to hear from you in the comments.

The answer will be updated to this post tomorrow.

Posted by Shikha Joshi
On behalf of The Studio Potter