Allen has been a clay artist for more than 20 years. Her hand-built wall fragments, murals, large vessels and vases reflect an architectural approach to clay and have a “Pacific Rim” influence. The geometric forms and lines of the clay pieces contrast with the raku glaze with crackles and copper flashes to produce a lyrical tension in her beautifully crafted pieces. Kathryn is known for her large custom architectural work including fireplace fronts, door surrounds, sinks and murals and also for her smaller intimate ikebana vases.

Karen Pritchett and Todd Shelby collaborate to make fun and functional earthenware pottery. Karen does most of the throwing; both decorate, each in a distinctive style.

Bartholomew creates art by casting, fusing and slumping glass. Her work ranges from thoughtful, provocative glass constructions, through magnificent lighting fixtures to functional serving pieces. She is a trained scientist and, as one, is an experimenter, always working with the similarities of art and science. This gives her work a fresh creative feel and presence. Her glass constructions incorporate old lab equipment and address many of the issues of the scientific world by exploring the interior of our physical world. She also uses a digital photographic silk screening process on many of her fused pieces to create a layering of color and image. This process is incorporated in both her functional and nonfunctional work. Many of Barthlomew’s plates are layers of color and light.

Jerri Bartholomew
Functional Light

Brewer calls herself a potter. Her work represents the bond, similarities, humor and fragility between animals and man. She sculpts her animals from a red roof tile clay using coil, slab and pinch techniques. The pieces are glazed with multi layers of underglazes while still at the “green” stage, fired, then adorned with horse hair, wire, feathers, etc. to complete the unique personality of each creature. Recently, Brewer has become interested in creating constructions integrating found objects and her ceramic pieces. Linda gladly accepts commissions and can be contacted through the gallery.

Burlison spent much of his younger years in Alaska where he learned to carve jade. He integrates his beautiful carvings with carefully crafted gold and silver work.

Until recently Davidson was a New Mexican living in Alto The gallery has a collection of Larry’s wood fired pottery which was produced from local materials he mined for his clay body and glazes. Each piece is beautifully crafted and fired to the warm tones produced by wood firing. We have a unique body of work that is truly on collectors’ wish list. The gallery also has a sampling of his new functional gas reduction ware. On request, we can send photos of pieces in our inventory either by e-mail or conventionally.

As a collage artist, Rhonda has a strong pull toward papers that are, by most people’s judgment, unimportant. They appeal to her because they follow human experiences and are part of maps of our lives left behind with the papers we discard. Doré layers and coaxes bright, vivid colors to ultimately blend and feel right with the papers she uses. Rhonda accepts commissions that could include your “special” papers.

Eric was originally trained as an engineer but has been designing and building in wood for more than 20 years. All of his work is done in a workshop attached to his home in the Sandia Mountains about 30 minutes from Albuquerque. He works in traditional and contemporary styles and admires masters like George Nakashima and Sam Maloof. He has designed and made furniture and alters for several churches. Freyer’s work will add an elegance to any room which will be loved for generations.

Functional potter, Justin Gerbich fires his pieces with wood which produces wonderful ash glazes. He also is interested in soda and salt firing which also results in unique surface treatments. His forms are free and relaxed and work well with his glazes.

Goyer and Bonneau have been a team since 1970 in the creation of their porcelain designs. Goyer studied ceramics at Institut des arts appliqués in Montreal and Bonneau studied graphic arts. They have participated in numerous exhibitions in museums and galleries in Canada and throughout the world. Their designs have been published in books and magazines. The gallery carries their line of functional, slipcast, porcelain dinnerware. Each piece, from the dancing tea pots to the scarabe dinnerware, is a model of design and function – each a classic beauty.

Kimberly uses oils, acrylics, oil stick wax and sometimes steel wool to create paintings of physical and psychological places. She is fascinated with structures that were once useful but now faded and the stories they tell.

Longtime potter Chris Gum is a purist. All material (clay and material for glazes) are mined personally using knowledge he gained earning a Masters degree in Geology. He uses these natural materials to produce exquisitely thrown and glazed pottery. His work is sought by discriminating collectors.

Ms Haas is a folk artist. Her pieces are intricately constructed from found objects. Many of her pieces have a playful sense of humor.

Kate produces intricate beaded designs which are set in sterling sliver to create unique pieces of jewelry.

Much of Cathi’s salt/soda glazed pottery is wheel-thrown and altered into square or triangular shapes. Pieces are decorated with impressions from nature or geometric shapes that enhance the form. The form of each piece interesting and strong, capable of functioning so well that it will be enjoyed and used often because it elevates the ordinary into something special.

Chuck Kranz recently moved to Silver City from New Hope, Pennsylvania. Chuck searches for selected fallen hardwoods and is able breathe another life into the wood as fine furniture. Kranz chooses wood pieces that dictate the finished edge of the piece of furniture. Each piece is handcrafted and has a hand rubbed oil finish

Bart’s oil paintings use bold colors and surreal imagery. His paintings are primarily rooted in his observation of ordinary reality, but his subconscious is the final authority for overall direction and feeling of his work.

Michael Johnson has been photographing rural America for more than 30 years. His large format black and white photographs hang in major museums, corporations, and private collections around the country.

Karen Lauseng uses ancient silver casting techniques in the crafting of her jewelry which often integrates fossils, fossilized rock, petrified wood and semi-precious stones. Through her artwork, Karen melds her life experiences with antiquity to produce timeless, spiritually connected pieces.

Lent calls herself a “narrative potter”. Each of her pieces is painstakingly glazed with motifs and stories from her experiences. Much of her youth was spent in Africa and numerous of her pots have themes from there.

Lindenau considers it a great privilege to be able to work with beautiful materials to make magical jewelry. His long interest in anthropology and archeology influences his work.

H. Margret’s work shows surprising and sophisticated color combinations, richly textured surfaces and lines ranging from delicate to bold. She works primarily in acrylics but also uses casein and ink for some of her studies.

Ed is a colorist who works in acrylics.

Meerfeld makes salt-glazed pieces which have a freshness and independent spirit. His use of different clay bodies, slips and glazes give his exquisitely crafted pots unique and special surfaces.

Barry has been many things, jazz guitarist, auto mechanic, and software engineer. He began his visual art career as a potter and now sculpts stone as well. Barry creates fountains which are both gorgeous visually and audibly. Additionally, they are extremely well engineered. He says, “Moving water is a basic natural force that renews my spirit”.

After 15 years of experimentation and thousands of glaze tests, O’Brien has perfected a unique “crawl” glaze for his pots. He takes his inspiration from nature and recreates the texture and brilliance of color found in mosses, lichens, coral and mineral formations.

Owen came to glass after a successful career as a potter. She has a wonderful sense of graphic design, form and color that is expressed in her fused and slumped pieces. Linda adds brilliance to her work with dichroic glass.

Phillips makes brightly colored, fun and functional ceramic clocks. She has a passion for ceramic mosaics and tables, lamps, birdhouses and totems are in her repertoire. She is strictly a hand-builder, but experiments with many techniques in that genre.

Pritchett is a multitalented, multifaceted artist. As a partner of Animalia Pottery, she creates fun and functional ceramics. One of her passions is quilting and her nontraditional quilts translate autobiographical imagery and text into a rich narrative. Each piece is an exploration of the quilting tradition in both materials and construction. She says “If there was more time, there’d be more sequins”.

Mariana’s work is changing. After years of sketching forms of all kinds on two-dimensional clay surfaces to produce exquisite majolica ware, her ceramic art has wandered into a world of three-dimensions. Her new sculptural pieces are wood fired or fired in an electric kiln with high fire glazes used in wood firing.

Roter's work reflects her travels and fascination with religious shrines, as well as her attention to color, light and patterns as used throughout the world. She has exhibited throughout the United States as well as in Taiwan, Beijing and Turkey and is now teaching at Western New Mexico University.

Shelby is the other partner of Animalia Pottery. But his creativity, imagination and artistic talent extend to creation of welded sculptures, mixed media “angels” made from found objects, and ceramic sculpture.

Shumway paints primarily with acrylics, but has used other, less traditional, media, i.e. toner ink & spray paint. Often he paints from dreams or poetry. “Paintings often provoke images made with words and poetry often produces visual images”. He travels adeptly between abstract and more representational painting.

Smith III fires his pottery using several different techniques. Some are raku fired, others are sagger fired and recently Claude has been salt glazing. For him clay provides a wonderfully plastic and tactile medium that allows an expressive outlet visualized in 3-dimensional forms whether sculptural or functional.

Cynthia has always know she was an artist. One can see this confidence in her functional dinnerware and in her graceful sculptures. The production of functional ware provides a sketchbook for design and technique. A whimsical vase foot will grow into a sculpture many months later. Her sculptures are reflections of herself as a woman and as a potter. Each piece is a dance of line, form and technique.

Cynthia Spencer
Functional Ceramics

Sprague produces extremely well crafted functional ceramics. Many of his colleagues envy his ability to throw and subsequently to manipulate and alter the clay to create elegant shapes.

Liza vonRosenstiel’s paintings seem simple. But she says that the simplest sentences in her life have been the most powerful, i.e. “She’s dead? Will you marry me?” vonRosenstiel's oil paintings reflect these episodic moments of one's life through the use of imagery consisting animals, light, and human relations. Each work depicts an innocence faced with that moment of reality creating a delightful piece. The quality of brush stroke and color is unsurpassed in her work. vonRosenstiel graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design and currently lives outside of Seattle.