I am fortunate to live and create in stunning Sedona, Arizona.  Those amazing red rocks make an inspiring backdrop for my studio.

I’ve wanted to work in clay since I was 6, My neighbor was a potter.  In fact, he would become a very famous potter, but I was 6.   I was entranced as I watched him throw pots that were bigger than me, as he sat at his kick wheel on the stoop of the steps leading to the basement.  Watching the glow of his huge, hand built gas kiln was mesmerizing.  I never forgot these things.

It took me a long time to have the opportunity to explore clay, and make the experience……..well…….mine.   I went a different direction.  I hand build with slabs.  You’ll see that nearly every piece I make is adorned with leaves.  Why?  Well, honestly, this is silly, but jumping in piles of leaves was one of my very favorite childhood memories.  Leaves were and are still, enchanting to me, absolute marvels of nature.    Then, as an adult in my 20’s, I went through a pretty rough patch in my life.

I live with my husband, Paul, a talented photographer, and my 2 Leonbergers, Scout and MacGuinness. My dearest and most wonderful Auntie, a true earth Goddess, handed me a book by Leo Buscaglia, called Living, Loving, and Learning.  (I’m dating myself.) He wrote of how he would gather with friends, students, clients, in his home, and in the autumn he would fill baskets with fallen leaves and create piles of them in his living room and they would all talk of life and love amidst the strewn leaves, breathing in that marvelous smell.  That visual affects me to this day.  It makes me aware of things that are so easily taken for granted.  Every leaf I place on a ceramic piece represents joyful abandon, love of life, respect of nature, lessons learned and gratitude for the special people who have touched my life.  I hope you feel it too, when you bring a piece of my work into you home. 

www.suemeyerceramicart.com