Welcome, Becky Wright Pottery.
Becky is a ceramic artist living and working in South Portland. As a lifelong Mainer she has spent the seasons watching the changes in the landscapes, the sea and has always had a connection with the earth. She spent her formative years living on a small farm in Vassalboro, where she collected eggs from her chickens, patted her neighbors cows, climbed trees and went swimming in nearby lakes. She fondly remembers making crafts at the kitchen table with her mother, paints, glue, needle and thread, paper and pictures spread before them. These are the roots of her artistic life. These experiences later influenced her work with clay and her focus on ceramic art in schooling. The colors and lines of the Maine landscapes, the ocean and skylines have always been an inspiration with her art.
Becky has been a professional potter for over 25 years. In 2016 she took the leap and left teaching art to children to become a full time potter. She loves to travel and enjoys a book on the beach, a delicious meal with family and precious time on the couch with her two cats. She enjoys canoeing with her husband and being near the water where she loves to draw in her sketchbook, look at birds through her binoculars, or sit in quiet.
Maine Pottery Tour
Saturday, May 4 from 10-5
Sunday, May 5 from 11-4
The Maine Pottery tour is a self—guided tour of pottery and ceramic studios in Maine. It’s a chance to meet the artists, peek in the kiln, see demonstrations and shop for handmade pottery.
Annual Flaws for a Cause Sale benefitting Cultivating Community.
April 15-30. In Store Only.
Anagama-fired pots by Jody Johnstone
For the month of October, Maine Potters Market featured the work of Jody Johnstone of Swanville, Maine. A full-time, wood-firing potter for almost twenty five years, Jody built her anagama kiln in 1997 after returning from a two year apprenticeship in Bizen, Japan with National Living Treasure, Jun Isezaki.
Jody built a large kiln, about 24 feet long, which she fires twice a year, in May and October. She does an eight day firing, and the kiln is stoked with wood around the clock by a crew of five or six potters. Two of the potters that she fires with, David Orser and Betsy Levine, are also at Maine Potters Market.
Jody explains: "The large kiln motivates me to make a lot of pots and I spend three to four months making maybe 500 - 600 pots for each firing. I enjoy having the long making cycle. It allows me to focus and develop new ideas for each firing. As I make the pots, I always think about how they will look in the kiln."
She continues: "Most of the pots are unglazed and are loaded very carefully on the shelves, some within or on top of each other and some on their sides to maximize flame patterns. The loading and the firing decorate the pots. The wood is the fuel and it is the wood ash carried through the kiln on the flame, interacting continuously with the clay over the long firing which creates the unique and beautiful surfaces of the pots."
Jody says, "I have a very exacting nature, and though I suspect I would try to orchestrate every last element of the firing if I could, even I know I can't do that. The wood kiln and firing are great partners for me in the sense that they force me to give up the last vestiges of control, and introduce the elements of imperfection and chance that add so much to the pots."
Ash Cove Pottery Makes Waves on Casco Bay
Coastal inspired pieces by Ash Cove Pottery: The Blue Wave series and Baby Boats by Gail Kass, and Susan Horowitz’s signature Double Dip Dinghies and Tide Clocks.
Read moreNew Textural Handbuilt Pots by Nancy Button
For the month of July, Maine Potters Market features the recent work of Fireside Pottery’s Nancy Button. Nancy is known for her richly textured functional pieces. She uses a slab technique, with textured surfaces created by handmade stamps as well as rope, tree bark and anything else that looks like it might make an interesting impression. Her reduction-fired wares are enhanced by glazes that accentuate that texture. Though her pieces are sometimes narrative (as in her mugs with chickens and eggs), many of them speak to us in a quiet language of form and design. She states that “Texturing the slabs is like leaving modern petroglyphs for the next person to read. My intent is to evoke emotion and memory, reminding us of the natural rhythms that measure our lives.”
ABOUT NANCY BUTTON — Nancy was introduced to pottery at an early age through her mother, who instilled in her a curiosity about the possibilities of clay. Her lifelong relationship to clay continues to be, like all good relationships, challenging in the best ways, and deeply satisfying. She hopes that her functional pieces will find their ways into homes where they will enhance the rituals of daily life.
Whimsical Sea creatures by Alex and Robbi Portela
For the month of June, Maine Potters Market features the collaborative work of member Robbi Fritz Portela and guest artist, Alex Portela. Robbi and Alex have combined their fun whimsical designs in a body of work representing one of their favorite subjects - Sea Life.
Alex and Robbi are a Mother Daughter team who have been working together for the last 25+ years, as soon as Alex could hold and play with clay, she has enjoyed the amazing process of creating art! This is their first official collaboration show and they are very excited to be working together on this project, hopefully leading to more collaborative adventures!
ABOUT ROBBI PORTELA — Robbi grew up in NH and came to Portland Maine to pursue her art degree at Maine College of Art! She fell in love with Maine and her husband and decided to stay, make lots of great pottery and raise a family. She now lives in Windsor, Maine where she has a wonderful pottery studio in her 200 year old farm house.
ABOUT ALEX PORTELA — Alex is currently based out of Saco Maine and uses her love of drawing and painting to illustrate her ceramics, whether that be itty bitty whale shark figurines, or mugs adorned with dragons. Surrounded by art, animals, and fantasy books from a young age, it is easy to see these influences in the whimsical creatures both real and imagined that inhabit her work.
