Biography
I moved back home to north Texas twenty years ago after retiring from teaching ceramics at the University of Louisville and raising a family on a small organic farm in Indiana. Since then I have taught clay classes at the Craft Guild of Dallas and a couple of courses at the University of Dallas on the history of ceramics where I was fortunate to serve as Resident Artist for a decade. I loved being part of these communities. When I retired again a couple of years ago, I knew I needed to connect with other groups in the area to keep growing and learning. Fortunately, art is a wonderful way to meet people and leads to new ways to challenge my art making and expand my membership in various parts of the community. It’s wonderful to be part of the Goldmark Cultural Center.

Artist Statement
Pots are about hospitality. That is their real subject matter for in them, we offer food and drink and witness to one another so they become a way to reach out and touch one another even in a time of physical distancing.

Like many other potters, I was first captivated by the sheer fun of shaping mud. Then I encountered the fire which turns the mud back into stone. There was no going back. The resulting pots have a quality of transference which, without words, give you a good sense of the maker. Holding a hand made pot from a friend or from a potter of thousands of years ago is, in fact, a sort of way of shaking hands with the maker. There may even be visible fingerprints of the maker which remain as a testament of their presence.

To stay consistent with those qualities, I use the most basic hand forming techniques—coiling, building with slabs, throwing on the potter’s wheel. I have a studio room added on to my house and fire the pots in a small gas burning kiln in my back yard.

Contact:
Studio 142/ 13999 Building
website: www.ginnymarsh.com