studio artists
Grace Eun Mi Lee is a Korean born ceramic artist who’s known for her creative one-of-kind installations and functional pieces.
Inspirations behind her creatively whimsical designs are driven from her imagination of the details in our daily lives that don’t receive proper attention. The personalities visible in each of her pieces is a representation of the missed details.
Josh Singleton
Growing up as a child of a Korean mother and West Virginian father, I was always at ends with my identity. Struggling with being “American enough” or “Korean enough”, I never felt like I belonged. Since my dad was in the army we moved around a lot, which afforded me a variety of experiences good and bad. Even though we moved across the United States, there wasn’t much in terms of available Korean cultural experiences. My mom and I would celebrate Korean holidays, trying to have the proper foods, but we usually had to make do without many ingredients and using substitutions. Without much access to a large part of my heritage, I felt disconnected from part of my identity, except through the food I ate.
To reconnect with my heritage and identity, I create utilitarian ceramics which address the intersectional relations of my Korean-American background and the foods I eat. Throughout my struggles with reclaiming my ethnic identity, food and art have become an anchor. I discovered ceramics to be an ideal medium as it is inextricably tied to food culture, in both Korean and Western traditions. The forms, decorations, and glaze I use reflect historic Korean ceramics. I’ve repurposed floral and nature motifs to tell my own story through ceramics and food. I hope by sharing my experience, others caught between two cultures can be inspired to share their own.
Josh Singleton is a Korean-American ceramic artist. He received his BFA with an emphasis on ceramics from West Virginia University. He currently lives in Richmond, Virginia.
Jocelyn Sandberg
“I love working with many materials, but clay is the medium I always come back to.”
Clay has been a part of Jocelyn’s life for decades. She started hand building as a 10 year old because–unlike her brother–she refused to play sports. She was very persistent about learning the wheel but wasn’t quite big enough, so she sat on a stack of telephone books with bricks stacked under both feet and made very tiny pots.
Jocelyn grew up in the Philadelphia area and she started working with clay at Chester Springs Studio in Pennsylvania. Seven years later she studied ceramics at VCU and received a BFA in crafts (with a concentration in ceramics) and a BFA in art education. She taught elementary art in Cumberland, VA and in Charlottesville where wood firing became her passion.
Focusing on wood firing was a natural progression for Jocelyn. She studied with Tom Clarkson at PVCC in Charlottesville and with Kevin Crowe of Tye River Pottery.
Jocelyn was taken by the color of the flashing and melted ash. She found that the colors of the orange-red flashing, the green-brown melted ash, and the blue-gray colors from reduction show very well on porcelain-like surfaces.
Jocelyn is back in Richmond wood firing pots with the Charlottesville community, teaching art and forging a continued journey in ceramics.
(Jocelyn’s art exploration has always included other mediums. She worked as a bench jeweler for Gabriel Ofiesh near downtown Charlottesville and worked for a well-established Seattle fiber artist on Camano Island weaving yardage for her custom clothing.)
Tracy Shell
“As a maker of utilitarian objects, I feel it is a privilege to make work that will transform routine activities into aesthetic experiences. I am curious about what characteristics of hand-made pottery elevate these objects to treasured possessions while embracing their utilitarian characteristics. My investigative process is fueled by a desire to explore the relationship between engaging form and practical function.”
Tracy Shell received her Masters of Fine Arts Degree from The School for American Crafts at Rochester Institute of Technology in New York state, and Bachelor of Fine Arts from University of Montevallo in Alabama. She also apprenticed with Echizen potter, Juroemon Fujita, in Japan for three years.
Most recently, Tracy held the position of Professor of art and art history and art department chair at Midland University in Fremont, NE. Ms. Shell and her family have just moved to the Richmond area to be close to family.
Mark Koslow
Mark Koslow is a local Richmond ceramic artist who is known for his one-of-a-kind bowls and vases. He is passionate about creating ‘arts and craft’ style vases, cups and bowls with reticulate glaze and needle nose vases. Mark started his career as a woodworker creating clocks, furniture and turning bowls. Mark has been known to say “One slip of a chisel and a wood bowl is history. Clay is forgiving and allows for limitless exploration and creativity!”
Susan Gaible
Today many ceramic artists focus on the art rather than the function. For me the pleasure is entwining visual images and designs into functional ware. This heightens the pleasure and enjoyment one can have from the simple everyday experiences of eating and entertaining. I’m all about food so to introduce an element that extends my creativity into the entire dining experience brings a lot of joy and personal satisfaction.
Hunter McCormick
Due to my interest in fashion and self expression through fashion, I am often faced with the reality of the fashion industry’s negative impact on our planet. My work is a representation of my thoughts on America’s overconsumption in regards to clothing. I craft my vessels to reflect the piles of clothing that inevitably end up in landfills. With my work, I challenge people to question their own ideas of consumption and sustainability.
Lesa A. Fleet
“Using my hands to create something new makes me happy deep
down in her soul — whether I’m firing a delicate ceramic gingko leaf,
stitching a blue velvet cloche hat of my own design, or arranging a
bouquet of baby’s breath, hydrangeas and sweet-smelling lavender
from a garden I planted.”
Lesa grew up in Santa Barbara, California and was heavily influenced by her beautiful, free-spirited mother. Her mother shared her love for art with Lesa from a very early age. As far back as Lesa could remember she was enrolled in one class or another. She threw her first clay pot on a pottery wheel when she was 8 years old. In 1986, Lesa moved to Virginia, and worked as a professional gardener for 30 years, using her hands in the soil to grow plants. Still, she made pottery and crafts of all kinds for her own pleasure and as gifts for friends and family.
Much of her work was — and is — influenced by her love for nature. In 2004, she began to design a series of leaf-imprinted ceramics, as well as jewelry made from fresh-water pearls. She offered her work for sale, first at the 17 th Street Farmer’s Market, and later at the South of the James Market.
Today, she works out of her home studio and at Shockoe Bottom Clay studios creating a wide range of decorative and functional pottery. Her love for creation goes into each vessel she shapes.
“May that same spirit flow into the people who eventually own and
enjoy my pottery”
Jane Martin
Wallflowers first bloomed in my imagination as the result of my fascination with flowers and an inexplicable need to decorate my functional ceramic ware. I put tulips on pitchers and daffodils on vases. Alas, however, the daffodil seemed inadequate– a poor facsimile of the actual flowers the vase was meant to hold. For how can one improve on nature? In addition, my delicate flowers seemed misplaced on vessels one meant to use. I began to realize they were better suited to be regarded and enjoyed out of harm’s way–on a wall.
All on their own, affixed to a tile, they became a sort of whimsical study of their natural counterparts. Working in a way that is entirely decorative rather than functional, I have gleaned horticultural inspiration from my own garden, as well as from the botanical prints and “flower portraits” of the 19th century, which have always fascinated me. Other influences include an obsession with vintage textiles as evidenced in the hand-painted and stenciled background of my tiles.
Not many people know that tulips continue to grow after they are cut, and it is a challenge and a thrill to try and capture that movement and gesture in ceramics. I love working in earthenware because the glaze and underglaze colors are so rich and vivid when fired at the lower temperatures, and thus so perfectly suited to my subject matter.
Wallflowers are my tribute to the real thing–those garden beauties which never fail to bring us joy and make us smile. My goal is to capture their charm; to surprise and to delight!
