member artists

Olivia August

Until I discovered clay, my primary interest was in science. I earned a doctorate in physiology and became a professor of biology at The City College of New York where I taught and ran a research laboratory. After early retirement I started potting and quickly became fascinated with the myriad of shapes formed from clay and with the variations of color created with glazes. My scientific background has helped in understanding the interactions of glazes. Recently I have been exploring the relationships of figures in a group. These figures are tubular, often distorted, and fired with several layers of glaze that form unexpected colors. The shape of the figures, their positions relative to one another and their glazing contribute to the cohesion of the group.

Sandra Beaver

I fell in love with clay in the 1960's at the Brooklyn Museum Art School. During that decade I pursued this passion at the Dallas Museum of Fine Art, the Craft Student's League in NYC, and Greenwich House Pottery, making functional wheel thrown and altered pieces. My clay life was interrupted for graduate school in art history and work as an educator for the Board of Education and the New School, and, a business selling original prints.When I returned to Greenwich House Pottery in 1996 I moved from functional work to handbuilding abstract sculpture.

Eve Behar

In 1991, Eve Behar took her first ceramics class in the Upper East Side of Manhattan. She continued to take classes through college and after at the many studios around Manhattan.  In 1995 she went to Florence for a year to study ceramics, painting, and art history at the Studio Art Center International for which she received a Post Baccalaureate Diploma.  Upon returning from Italy, Eve worked as an assistant making slip cast production work while pursuing her own career.  In 2001, Eve once again went back to full time international study at Sheridan College in Oakville, Canada.  There she spent three intensive years refining her skills and techniques and developing a body of work. Eve was very happy to accept the highest award of Best in Show at the Graduate Show of 2004.Since 2004 and returning to New York, Eve has been in various wholesale and retail shows, gallery shows and featured on the Ceramics Monthly website.  She also is an active board member of The Clay Art Guild of the Hamptons and Watershed Center for Ceramics Arts.  Eve is a proud new mama and is dedicating her most recent work to her son Luca.

CC Bookout

I didn’t discover that I loved clay until I had graduated from Skidmore College with a BA degree in psychology. While living and working in New York, I took a class in ceramics at the Brooklyn Museum Art School and later at the Riverside Church craft program. In 1973 my business, C.C.’s Pottery, was opened.  I specialized in high fire stoneware and porcelain. In 2006 I received a Masters Certificate from Hood College.  In recent years I have explored sculpture and wood firing. I still love working on the wheel but have added some hand building techniques to my repertoire.

Kathy Daley

"Creativity has always been a part of my life. By day, I work at my
company doing graphics and product development.... by night I paint
and enjoy clay. How lucky I am, everyday, I sprinkle it with the joy of creating....is there a better way to enjoy life."

Tina Folks

As an artist, Tina Folks has been working with clay for over 20 years. Her recent direction has been to explore the archetypes of animals and their meanings inspired from indigenous cultures. This direction was ignited unexpectedly. During this process Tina learned to work quickly and intuitively. Eventually, the female figures began to have animal heads, such as antelopes, bulls and birds. She will at times get a glimpse of an animal’s “mask” and try to recapture it quickly in wet clay. The costume or robe will be completed next. Working immediately and crudely, it’s obvious that the elements of her figures contain primitive references of tapestry and beaded jewelry that are familiar. However, by using thick glazes and colored slips, these details are obscured leaving the essence of the figure behind. This layered use of colored materials contrasted by a black glaze wash make the work contemporary. 

Amy Grabelsky

As a child, I loved watching my grandfather in his attic studio, as he painted, sketched and sculpted.  Clearly I was inspired by his creativity and love for art.  I was also deeply affected by the galleries of mythological art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  I discovered clay and my passion.  Now I try to incorporate my imagination and wonderment as I hand build and coil delightful fantasy creatures.

Karen Lissack

Karen Lissack (aka Kiki) creates KIKI Handmade pottery in East Hampton, New York. She endeavors to create objects which meet the William Morris directive for things to be both useful and beautiful. Like many potters, she was introduced to clay in school, earning an undergraduate minor in Fine Arts. A former NYC advertising executive, Karen also holds an M.A. and was most recently VP/Management Director of Foote, Cone & Belding. Her former clients include American Express, BlueCross BlueShield, MetLife and Select Comfort.

Marsha Lipsitz

Marsha Lipsitz has worked primarily in clay and mixed media sculpture for the last 12 years after retiring from teaching art in the New York City school system. She has been most interested in non-traditional surfaces for clay such as melted glass and wax. Her work has been shown at Celedon Gallery in Water Mill, at Gone Local in Amagansett, at Ashawaugh Hall in Springs, at the Gallery at the East End Arts Council in Riverhead. She has also had shows in Manhattan and in Savannah, Georgia. Her work is also in many private collections all over the country.

Carey Lowell

I was introduced to ceramics 35 years ago in my Colorado high school. I throw and hand build in porcelain as I love it’s translucence and weightlessness when thin. I pinch, pull, and stretch the clay to achieve the sheerness I desire. I press,pierce, cut, adorn the clay to make a vessel which appears functional but may be too delicate to serve any purpose. I am exploring the tenuous thread between perceived function and practical limits.

Nancy Robbins

Nancy Robbins has a BFA in ceramics from the Rhode Island School of Design. She also studied ceramic engineering and glaze chemistry at Alfred University. She was Senior Craftsmen for Ceramic Reproductions at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. She works almost exclusively in porcelain created on the potter's wheel. Her smooth simple shapes serve as canvas for carefully reproduced ancient Chinese and Japanese glazes: Copper Red, Jun Blue, Celadon, Oribe, and Iron Yellow. “Simplicity and quiet grace are often overlooked.”

Shelly Sonenberg

"I have always been involved in the arts, initially as a photographer, then developing a broader area of interest in contemporary painting, sculpture, design and architecture. I first started working with clay about three years and have been exploring the medium ever since. I started out working on the wheel but have since become equally intrigued by the sculptural possibilities in hand building and in both cases have moved from a concentration on purely functional pieces to an exploration of more conceptual ideas."

Phyllis Spiegel

"I was never formally trained in the arts or crafts but always had a deep appreciation for beautiful hand crafted objects, especially ceramics. When given the opportunity to work with clay, it became an all-consuming part of my life. The more I keep working the more I keep learning and this is what holds my passion for clay. There is always a new idea or a new technique to make my pots better then the last firing."

Sarah Jaffe Turnbull

"I was drawn to ceramics about 10 years ago after reading Soetsu Yanagi’s “The Unknown Craftsman”, and being inspired by his descriptions of and respect for the natural beauty in the anonymous and unselfconscious work of earlier eastern artisans.  I found myself returning to simple handbuilt forms, primarily in porcelain, and to shinos, particularly Malcolm Davis’.  I like the unpredictability due to the type and thickness of clay, application of glaze and position in the kiln."

Jonathan Zamet

Jonathan became interested in pottery while studying at Columbia. He started out in an arts and crafts program at Riverside Church. Later he became a studio assistant at Hunter College surrounded by a great clay faculty that included Susan Peterson, John Mason, Karen Karnes and James Makins. He also spent some time in the UK working for an American potter, William Mehornay, whose work is in the Victoria and Albert Museum.