Instructors
Richard Gilson graduated with a minor in art and a major in anthropology. He began his ceramics journey in 2000 as a student at Brookline Adult Ed.and then at the Boston Center For Adult Education. Richard pursed clay at the BCAE from 2003-2008. During that time he also enrolled in classes at the Harvard/Radcliffe Ceramics Program. He has participated in numerous wood, soda and raku workshops both locally and nationally. While at the BCAE he became an instructor and then a co-manager of the studio.he has been an instructor/manager at Feet of Clay since 2009.
Richard’s primary practice is producing functional pottery. He periodically engages in creating sculptural work through both throwing on the wheel and hand building. He is inspired by nature and organic forms with a focus on coral reefs and the organisms they support. He has exhibited his work extensively in the greater Boston area.
https://feetofclaypottery.com/artists/richard-gilson/
Marc Mancuso has been making ceramics since 1988 and for the last 14 years has taught ceramics at beginner though advanced levels. He has taught at M.I.T., Brookline Adult Education, and Brookline Arts Center, and given workshops at the Fuller Craft Museum. He has worked in Boston as a production potter, sold works at juried local fairs and exhibits regionally. His approach to making objects can be simultaneously whimsical and methodical, but is usually more one than the other.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/marcmancuso/sets/
Tim Wallace Tim grew up in Mid Coast Maine and attended the University of Southern Maine where he received his BFA in studio arts with a minor in art education. Originally a painting major, he switched to ceramics once he realized the beauty and versatility that clay provided him as a maker. He later worked for a production potter for several years before deciding to further his education and attend graduate school. He attended The George Washington University where he received his MFA in ceramics. He was awarded a teaching assistantship and later went on to teach for several years at GW. Simultaneously, he also taught at several campuses of the Northern Virginia Community College system. During this time he also taught at the Corcoran College of Art and Design for eight years. Tim works in all aspects of clay and ceramics, but is drawn to the potter’s wheel primarily. It is the inner energy of a vessel and clays ability to expand into voluptuous forms that attracts him to wheel throwing. His current work involves throwing numerous forms and joining them together off of the wheel to create sculpture that bespeaks animal and figurative forms.
http://www.timwallace-ceramics.com/
Holly Sears graduated from Mass College of Art in Ceramic Design. Originally a painter on canvas, she discovered clay, starting in intricately painted low-fire fire pieces that are well known throughout the US. She has since moved onto large animal sculptures, and now back to painting very detailed designs on both clay and on canvas. She has been teaching beginning and intermediate pottery, wheel throwing and hand building for fifteen years, but is not currently teaching at Feet of Clay.
https://feetofclaypottery.com/artists/holly-sears/
Christine Shadic fell in love with clay when she was about eight years old, when celebrating a friend’s birthday. She visited a pottery near her home town where she watched the potter work on her wheel. From that moment, she was hooked! After doing a little clay in high school, she went on to study ceramics at Potsdam College in upstate New York. Several years later, she moved to the Boston area and started working at the Potters Shop and School in Needham where she was an assistant studio manager. She taught classes for children and adults at the studio and also in the Newton schools as part of their after-school program. Christine became a member of Feet of Clay in 2001. She is still teaching adult classes along with selling her work at local shows and sales.
Shahane Sahakian My first experience working with clay was my sophomore year of high school. It was love at first wedge and by the end of my junior year I switched majors from Marine Biology to Ceramic Arts. I attended Alfred University and in 2015 I graduated with my Bachelors in Fine Arts concentrating in Ceramics. Within my own artistic practice I specialize in hand building. I work in an array of sizes and specialize in animal/human forms. All aspects of nature inspire my practice from the bugs to the trees. Mainly building through the coil building method I’m constructing aesthetically pleasing forms that double as planters. Previously I was making solely “activist art” that brought attention to the problems that stuck out to me in society. I found it solved little and added to the anxiety of current events so my mindset and artistic practice began to shift. I began asking: “how can I help or change these problems through my work” and developed my new artistic philosophy. My focus is now to bring beautiful and affordable work to heavily urbanized areas. Following the studies that show nature and art help combat depression, seasonal affective disorder, and other mental illnesses. Ultimately, making art heals me and I want to use my skill sets to help others as well. There is enough pain in the world and as an artist I feel it’s my obligation to counteract that with a loving craft.
https://www.instagram.com/pudgy_pottery/
Ruth Slotnick
Ruth’s venture into ceramics started at Penn State in early 1990s where she studied with Chris Staley and Liz Quackenbush, both respected and accomplished American ceramists with very different styles and approaches to clay. As an undergraduate arts major, Ruth focus was primarily on non-functional wheel thrown work (i.e., thrown and manipulated). In the mid-1990s, Ruth started working with Danny Stainton, a British production potter. Together, Ruth’s training (both academic and crafts-based) resulted in a pure love of form in the tradition of Hamada and Leach with a passion for throwing in spirit of the Martin Brothers and Jane Hamlyn. Ruth has exhibited and sold her artwork in various craft shows in Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, and Florida and started teaching ceramics classes to both kids and adults in 1992. Ruth holds a Ph.D. in Higher Education Administration from the University of South Florida and a M.Ed. in Art Education and B.A. in Integrative Arts from Penn State University. She was formally the Director of Education at the New Art Center in Newtonville and taught middle school art in the Mansfield School System. She simply loves teaching adults, teens, and children and having her hands in the best mud ever.
https://feetofclaypottery.com/artists/ruth-slotnick/
Jennifer Wyman
Jennifer Wyman has been practicing pottery since 1996. Born in Houston, Texas, she began ceramics at the University of North Texas and received a BFA in studio art at the University of Texas at Arlington. She has studied traditional pottery in both Ghana and Ethiopia. She has been teaching ceramics since 2007, teaching wheelthrowing, handbuilding and glaze chemistry. She taught at the Boston Center for Adult Education, at the Dorchester Center for the Visual Arts and now at Feet of Clay Pottery.