I am a potter. Making pottery that will find a place in someone’s home is my goal, sometimes a lofty goal. Because of this, I strive for clean, comfortable and well-crafted pots. I am interested in how and why utilitarian pottery has a place in present-day society. Through my pots I aspire to add pomp to daily living. I combine the necessary with the unnecessary – utility and ornament. In doing so, I work to make unique and engaging objects. My hope is that the pots I create spur curiosity in others by requiring them to look closely with both their hands and their eyes, as a visual examination alone is not enough. My studio working pace has gradually become slow and steady as I spend extended lengths of time on each pot. I am firing smaller kiln loads and spending more time decorating and paying attention to the small details. My color pallet tends to be bright, the colors of candy I enjoyed as a kid and continue to take pleasure in today. I want my work to have a light and lively feeling. Therefore, the clay I use is a grolleg porcelain that I fire to 2245°F in an electric kiln. This clay provides a very white canvas that gives vibrancy to my glazes and decoration. With each pot and kiln load, the choices I make in color, form and decoration come together to form a body of work that continues to create new challenges, questions and solutions.
Andrea earned her Master of Fine Arts degree at Syracuse University. She focuses her efforts on making well-crafted porcelain pots intended for domestic settings. During her undergraduate studies at West Virginia University, Andrea traveled to Jingdezhen, China for a semester to study traditional Chinese porcelain. She returned 2 years later with the help of the Regina Brown Undergraduate Fellowship for a more concentrated study of qinghua (blue and white underglaze decoration.) Andrea has settled in Floyd, VA to pursue a life as a studio potter alongside fellow potter Seth Guzovsky at Poor Farm Pottery.