MEET THE ARTIST

 “Valerie earned a Bachelors degree in Fine Arts with emphasis in Ceramics from the Gwen Frostic School of Art inside Western Michigan University located in Kalamazoo, Michigan. While attending art school she found a passion for working with her hands and using materials from earth to make objects and sculpture.”

I love being in my studio and spend most of my time covered in clay. When I’m not creating, teaching and exhibiting my work, I like to enjoy myself near the ocean, hiking, singing songs near a campfire, snuggling with my pup, and adventurous road trips. In the past I maintained a nomadic lifestyle, showing my work around the country for years. Recently, I have planted roots with my husband in Newnan, Georgia and work and teach ceramics in my studio located inside the Funky Shack Mercantile in Tyrone, Georgia.

The humid temperate climate is a big change from the brisk cold temperatures of Michigan and the arid windy weather in the Pacific North West of California, but I have to say, that I’m loving it! Now looking back, I cannot see myself doing anything else. Making ceramics and teaching others the way of creation is my calling. Classes and workshops are held in my MindBodyClay studio and there’s always an amazing energy inside our creative space.

As a ceramicist, working directly with earth, I use traditional ceramic techniques rooted in the most ancient form of functional art making. My forms are all handmade and start as a ball of clay. Formed and sculpted with intention to hold the very nature that nourishes us. The glazes and surface treatments I use on my pots are meant to exaggerate being in nature, to remind others how pristine nature already is. As well as expand our ideas of ritual and tune into the overlooked biological simplicities surrounding our daily lives. By examining my relationship with earth I have grown to appreciate the smallest details and have become truly grounded in the art of the ceramic process. This allows me the opportunity to share these findings with others and teach what I’ve learned about the world of clay and what the process has to offer us.

If you would like a more detailed information about the studio and what we offer, please visit my CLASSES page or send me an email on the CONTACT page of my website.