Introducing our December Pots for Membership program! 

The holidays are around the corner, and what better way to celebrate than supporting working artists! Each month, Studio Potter features a small selection of artists and their work, which is available for sale in our online store for thirty days only. Check out this month's batch of talented featured artists, and their work on our online store. In exchange for the sale of their work, each artist or a chosen beneficiary will receive a one-year membership to the journal. It's the gift that keeps on giving! Here are the December 2017 artists:

Alex Zablocki 

Alex Zablocki's ceramic work "dissects the vessel and re-animates its constituent parts. Vestiges of functional pottery are free to perform as comic objects frozen in acrobatic recombination. The vessel’s proper anatomy is let loose and its constituent parts slip along viscous saturations of colored glaze."(alexmzablocki.com) In 2008, Alex received his BFA from Finlandia University, Hancock, Michigan, and then pursued two Post-Bachelor programs at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Colorado State University. In 2017 he received his MFA from The New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University. Upon completion of graduate school, Alex is ecstatic to be reunited with his wife, dog, and social life! Alex currently resides and works in Fort Collins Colorado and shows his work both nationally and internationally.

Check out Alex' piece on our store Here! 

See more of Alex' work at alexmzablocki.com

Heidi Kreitchet

Heidi Kreitchet received her BFA in ceramics from Northern Arizona University, where she focused on wood-firing and thanks Don Bendel, Jason Hess, and Ted Adler for their expertise. From 2004 to 2006, Kreitchet assisted renowned ceramic artist Don Reitz in Clarkdale, Arizona. Through exposure to Reitz’s skillful, hand building techniques, Kreitchet was inspired to pursue her own ideas with clay. She completed a MFA at Utah State University under the guidance of John Neely and Dan Murphy. In 2011, David Armstrong, Founder of the American Museum of Ceramic Art (AMOCA) invited Kreitchet to start AMOCA Ceramics Studio in Pomona, California. Kreitchet has passionately built a ceramics studio that provides classes, memberships, workshops, to the community. This past year Kreitchet joined the Advisory Board for The Reitz Ranch Center for Ceramic Arts.

I am interested in creating work that explores form and line.  My emotional, intuitive and physical reaction to handling and manipulating the clay provides [my work] with passion, power, animation, and elasticity.

Check out Heidi's piece on our store Here!  

See more of Heidi's work at http://www.hkwoodfire.com

Read an article about Heidi and other women wood-firers here.

Shawn Spangler

Shawn Spangler, a native Pennsylvanian, currently lives and works in Oahu, Hawaii.  Spangler's work draws inspiration from historical artifacts, contemporary design, and digital technology. Through his projects, he aims to question authorship and commoditization of objects, and highlight connections between digital and analog processes. Spangler holds a BFA from Pennsylvania State University and a MFA from the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University. Spangler is currently an Assistant Professor at The University of Hawai’i at Mānoa, and a founding member of the co-op educational and online gallery, Objective Clay. As a former resident artist in China, his wheel-thrown porcelain forms are influenced by ceramics of the Koryo and Song dynasties.

I'm focused on artistic authorship of ceramic vessels through object interpretation, transformation, and re-contextualization from a point of origin. Ceramic vessels have served as cultural indicators throughout time. We bestow these objects with the power to narrate our experience. They may guide us through stories of our past remaining as cultural signifiers to help us locate where we once were and where we are going.

Check out Shawn's piece on our store Here! 

See more of Shawn's work at http://www.shawnspangler.com

Dustin Yager 

Dustin Yager's installation-based and utilitarian ceramics deal with popular perceptions of pottery, taste, and class. He earned a BA from Carleton College, Northfield, Minnesota, and a MA in Visual and Critical Studies from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. His work has been exhibited nationally, and he has presented his work and academic research in several venues and conferences around the country. After serving as a technician and teaching artist at Lillstreet Art Center, Yager moved to Minneapolis in 2011 where he became Head of Education and Artist Services at Northern Clay Center. He is the recipient of a 2012 Jerome Foundation Project Grant, and was invited to participate in the Summer Surface Forum residency at Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts in 2016. Now living and working in Brooklyn, NY, where he teaches at Greenwich House Pottery and BKLYN Clay.

Check out Dustin's piece on our store Here! 

See more of Dustin's work at https://www.ceramicsandtheory.com

Look for a contribution from Dustin in the upcoming Winter/Spring 2018 issue of Studio Potter! 

Brian Jones

Brian R. Jones grew up in Syracuse, New York, earned BFA from Alfred University in 2001, and a MFA from the Meadows School of the Arts at Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas, in 2007. He shows work nationally and has been a resident artist at Watershed Center for Ceramic Arts and The Clay Studio in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In March 2013, he was awarded the Emerging Artist award at the National Council on the Education in the Ceramic Arts (NCECA) conference in Houston, Texas. He has taught workshops at Penland School of Crafts, Oregon College of Arts and Crafts, and Massachusetts School of Art and Design. He was a board member of Studio Potter journal from 2012-2014.

Check out Brian's piece on our store Here! 

See more of Brian's work at http://www.brianrjones.com

Read a Studio Potter article by Brian here.

Ruth McKinney Burket

Ruth McKinney Burket received her MFA in ceramics in 2011 from the State University of New York at New Paltz. She is a mom, an artist, and the ceramics studio manager at the Women's Studio Workshop in Rosedale, New York. Her art practice is fueled by a desire for social engagement, community building, and creative collaborations. As she examines the role that objects can play in shaping our interactions, behaviors, and habits she aims to inspire people to be socially proactive and use creativity as a catalyst for change.

See Ruth's piece on our store Here! 

See more of Ruth's work on her Instagram.

Check out the Women's Studio Workshop at https://wsworkshop.org

Ruth wrote an article for Studio Potter Vol. 37, No. 2 - check it out here.

Want to find out more about the program or submit a piece of your own? 

Email sophie@studiopotter.org