Ann Arbor Potters Guild
The Potters Guild is a cooperative non-profit organization which has been a part of the Ann Arbor Street Art Fair, the Original since 1960. The Potters Guild is located at the pavilion on N. University every day of the fair.
Exhibiting Potters Guild Artists
Christina Bergstedt
In life as in art, simplicity and complexity can be found in a constant dance. Just as the most seemingly complicated organisms are ruled by simple, elegant equations, so too are many artistic choices.
The most compelling combinations of form, texture, and glaze live amongst those individual choices, springing from somewhere between knowledge and instinct.
That interstitial place is where Christina’s inspiration lives — between control and verdant growth; between clear thought and wordless impulse.
John Leyland
Form and surface have always been big components in my making, specially when it comes to wheel-based pottery. I enjoy developing new forms and playing with the massive amount of information that comes from different cultures and their pottery making over the centuries. i enjoy working in porcelain and using atmospheric firings such as Salt and wood firings for my work.
Mistique Ott
Mistique Ott is a ceramic artist based in Grass Lake, Michigan, and a proud member of the Ann Arbor Potters Guild. Passionate about the alchemy of glazes, she is a self-proclaimed “glaze nerd,” constantly exploring new textures and colors in her work. Inspired by the beauty and rhythms of the natural world, Mistique’s pottery reflects an organic elegance that connects art to nature.
While focusing on creating art, I find comfort in the containment of the chaotic mix of thoughts, memories, and imaginations; this balancing of order and disorder is the vision I have for my work. Conveying feelings and ideas, creating a sense of mystery and open-endedness is more important to me than having a set story for my work. As some thoughts are fleeting, while others seem carved in stone, so is the ceramic art. Pieces we create may last forever or be shattered in an instant. This uncertainty, along with the physicality, that comes with the making of ceramic art helps ground me, keeping me focused on being in the moment enjoying the here and now.
Jen Shepherd Moore
Jen has been working in clay for over 30 years and is an adjunct member of the Ann Arbor Potters Guild. She is inspired by mid-century illustration and nature, and loves to create one of a kind, functional pottery. When she is not working in clay, she’s working at Ford or spending time with her husband, sons, & cats in Northville.
I believe art should be accessible in form and function, and enjoy filling a nostalgic niche. Art factors in to everyday objects whether we observe it or not – and I want to empower people to be comfortable making it obvious that they are consuming and supporting artists.
Jane White
Jane earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts from Eastern Michigan University and her Master of Fine Arts from Indiana University, Bloomington. Her career spans over thirty years, beginning as the ceramics Studio Demonstrator at the University of Michigan. Jane has taught at various Michigan schools, including EMU, the Center for Creative Studies, and Central Michigan University. For over a decade, she worked at Pewabic Pottery in Detroit, Michigan, where she held roles of Fabrication Director, Kiln Manager, and Education Manager. Jane works out of a studio in Clinton, Michigan, and is a member of The Ann Arbor Potter’s Guild.
Most of my years in the studio have been spent exploring the physical and chemical possibilities of material and fire. I feel that objects are most successful when they express the material, maker, and process.
My recent work has been combining glass murine, frits, and stringers to add focal points to thrown texture and color, line and pools to rammed sawdust clay. In addition to this sculptural work, I have focused on mugs and enjoy loose, often uncentered forms. They are most successful when you see they are on the edge of collapse but maintain their function.
Mark White
I love working with clay. I have always had an appreciation of arts and crafts. When I took a pottery class, I found a way to do both. The two are intertwined, allowing a person to develop their craft with lots of room for artistic expression. I enjoy the physical process of making something. For me, this carries over into all aspects of ceramics: making clay, making pots, making glazes, glazing pots, firing pots, learning all the time, all along through the process; each time..
Matt Winchester
Matt is a U.S. Navy veteran and local artist with over 10 years of experience at the Ann Arbor Potters Guild. Doing either wheel-throwing or hand-building he is dedicated to creating quality pottery.
Matts ceramic vases are handcrafted with focus on organic shapes blending form and function.
Doug Worthington
Doug has a BFA from EMU class of ’79 after doing work at Oakland Community College and Pewabic Pottery (part of MSU back then). After graduation Doug worked in computers for 30 years, returning to clay in 2011. Doug became a member of the Potters Guild in 2012 and has been refining his skills since then.
Doug focuses on functional pottery, He has many influences, including pottery depicted in the Flemish Painters who have images of pottery in their canvases, the classic Japanese potters, and the iconic forms used by potters worldwide. Doug is also a closet chemist and technologist, always testing and manipulating glazes to come up with unique blends and trying out new tools like laser cutters and vinyl cutters.