MICHELLE SPENCER, President and Director of Spencer Pottery, Inc. has been a full-time potter for eight years. She enrolled in her first pottery class in 1998 with Julianna Foy at Brunswick Community College. She also took one class at Cape Fear Community College with Hiroshi Sueyoshi and Don Johns. Since then she has created a small gallery, built a private studio with five different kilns and six wheels, and has never stopped learning and creating. Now she also teaches one small class for intermediate to advanced potters. Michelle has also taken workshops with well-known potters Ben Owen III, Leah Leitson, Ron Meyers, Randy Brodnax, Rudy Autio, Frank Boyden, Tom and Elaine Coleman, Marcia Selsor, Steve Branfman, John Calver, Nick Joerling, Sandi Pierantozzi, Janet Mansfield and Cynthia Bringle. Michelle has had a long admiration for the work of John Glick, although she has never studied with him or met him. Close contemporaries are Kathy Ratliff and Susan Reinecke, who have been some of the most honest, influential and helpful critics of my work.
(also see www.artplaces.com/spencer)
_________________________________________________________________________
JEAN FIEDLER
__________________________________________________________________
FLORA SWIFT Clay just feels good in my hands. It's fascinating to see what can be made from clay by letting your heart and soul do the creating. Growing up with my brother and seeing him do all kinds of art gave me the urge to do my own art. He became a teacher at the local community college and I became his student. For many years I was blessed to have him as my pottery mentor.
My dream is to have people see the magic I see.
___________________________________________________________________________________
DONNA SILVA - Donna has been with Spencer Pottery three years now. She started as a student and apprentice. She now works with porcelain more and enjoys carving botanical images and dragonflys. Her work is becoming light and lovely. Donna is a perfectionist. If it's not right, she destroys it. Brava!!!
__________________________________________________________________________
REBECCA PIERRE After Many years of playing with words, shaping them into poems, I decided in the fall of 2000 to try shaping clay into forms - something I had always wanted to do. Pottery became a way to take poetic thoughts and turn them into solid form. Now I am addicted to pots, poetry, and the poetry of pots.
__________________________________________________________________________
TERRY WARD - Terry became a student potter in 2005. She is currently experimenting with majolica and porcelain. Because she spent a lifetime loving pottery and studying other potters, especially Ben Owen III and some other seagrove potters, she has a strong eye for form. She is becoming a strong functional potter.
__________________________________________________________________________
CAROL VON RADESKY - Carol also became a student potter in 2005. She recently purchased a wheel and is trying to create some space at home for working in clay while still firing at the "mother studio." While she conducted some brave experiments with sculpture early on, she too focuses mainly on functional work.
__________________________________________________________________________
SHARON MULHOLLAND Recently, I have had the opportunity to pursue a career in art full time. I am a 2-D and 3-D artist. I began working in clay about ten years ago, as a way of discipline. I had graduated (BA in Art with concentrations in painting and print making) a few years before and was working in an office. I wasn't making any time for painting. I thought I would take a couple of potttery classes (sounded like fun) and after I established a habit of setting aside time for pottery, I would switch back to painting. Well, that never happened. I had to devote time to painting AND pottery. I now exhibit pottery at the Spencer Gallery and at Franklin Square Gallery, both in Southport. I am also available for mural or painting commissions.
