Andrea Brown / Fire Garden Pottery

High fire, functional stoneware pottery

About the Artist

Several years ago, when my studio was in West Medford and I first applied to Open Studios, I wrote this for my artists statement. As I read it now, it holds as true for me today as it did then:

Playing with mud and fire are activities that I've enjoyed since I was a child. It seems nearly universal that humans have the same primal urges. As an adult, making pottery satisfies both of those needs for me. That one then generates useful objects for eating, drinking and ritual makes the activity all the more compelling. I feel connected to a millenias-long, honorable craft that is about sustenance of physical and spiritual life. Pottery has been made by people wherever clay is found... all around the world!

Since that beginning, I’ve appreciated the opportunity, and the pleasure, of attending Open Studios annually, sending pots home with pottery lovers old and new. As my skills and work progress, I delight in the ways that allows me to offer new takes on the pots I make, and to add new types of pots to my offerings.

The big news this year is that I will be getting a reduction firing glaze kiln (low oxygen for different color reactions). It’s the last major item on my list for a fully functioning and efficient studio. This will also allow me to offer another clay artist or two space to work and fire. It’s been a long time coming, from classes at Mudflat and my basement studio on Chardon Road.

Your support over the years for all this has been instrumental, as I continue to work toward a self-sustaining endeavor. For that I am most grateful!