Please tell us about your background and how you came to Somerville.
I came to the area for work in the tech industry and to experience the “big” city (I am from a small farm town in central Illinois). My formal education is Materials Engineering with a focus on ceramics and through a circuitous route, I’ve spent much of my career in technical sales.
At what age did your creative journey begin?
I grew up playing around with many art mediums but started focusing on pottery during evening classes in grad school. I was looking for a tangible activity to accompany academic studies. Learning to use the pottery wheel was challenging for me and after gaining some control over that, glazing often proved (and still often is) confounding. The perfect cereal bowl became that elusive goal that I was constantly refining: size, shape, weight, texture & color.
Who or what inspires your work?
I am inspired by the community a pottery studio creates. My ‘work’ is really making a space for others to explore. It is exciting to me to see different things people do, and it is very fulfilling to see people proud of learning new skills.
What motivated you to start Commonwealth Clayworks?
After 20+ years of working by myself in my garage studio, I thought it would be nice to build a shared studio. Then I thought it would be cool to offer a few classes introducing science-y aspects of ceramics… that evolved into wanting to create a curriculum and environment that got folks feeling successful on the wheel faster… and so on. Commonwealth Clayworks has turned out to be a larger operation than I anticipated. The warm reception from our neighborhood and the broader pottery community energizes me to continue expanding our offerings and exploring new ideas.
What are you currently working on?
Still working on that cereal bowl – and also on a workbook to accompany pottery classes that goes deeper into ceramic science as it pertains to pottery using simple language and cartoon diagrams. To be continued…
More Artists of the Month from 2025
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About the Artist of the Month
This program is inspired by the Nave Gallery’s “Featured Artist” program, which ran from 2005 to 2009.
SAC’s Artist of the Month program is a way for us to celebrate the enormous wealth of talent in our city, by shining a spotlight on a different creative Somervillian each month.
This program has been put together by a whole raft of people: Coordinators Jenn Harrington (2013-2014) and Kellie Veiga (2013), Gilmore Tammy (2017) and Somerville Arts Council board members Matt Kaliner, Tim Devin, Valeria Amato, and Michael J. Epstein, Bill House (2019-2020), Charan Devereaux (2019-2025), Tori Weston (2019-2025) and Andrea Read (2022-2025). Current coordinators, are Kerrie Kemperman (2019-), Seth Garcia (2025-), and Ben Cuba (2026-).
Know of a great Somerville based artist who should be recognized, please nominate the artist for consideration. We seek artists who contribute to the community through their strong work and community collaborations. Artist should either reside in the City or contribute to the City’s vibrant art scene.