After owning and directing EarthworksNYC, a community pottery studio on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, I recently retired to the Catskills with my husband Ranley. We’ve been firing Olive the salt kiln, gardening, and enjoying our country life. And with Bethel Woods, the site of the historic 1969 Woodstock festival just down the road, the air is literally filled with music on many summer nights!

Born and raised in southwestern Pennsylvania, my work draws on the colors and textures of the family dairy farm. The fresh green color of spring fields. Wooden barns and metal roofs richly textured by years of paint and weather. The late summer garden ripening red and orange against the rusty patina of an old plow. These are the images and memories that feed my work. Utilitarian stoneware forms, thrown by hand, then salt fired; simple and straightforward, ready for years of use.

My clay journey began in New York City where, with a degree in Art History, I worked for the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It was during an after work pottery class that my passion for clay developed. Throwing my first crooked little bowls full of promise, I found endless inspiration in the museum’s vast ceramic collections as well as from the the city’s rich clay culture.

A self-directed clay education was built around New York’s many clay studios and visiting artists. And the nearby salt and wood kilns of Mikhail Zakin, the Peter’s Valley Craft Center, and Susan Beecher gave voice to the visual memories of the family farm.

Please come visit!

Sara