INSTRUCTORS
Keiko Ashida
Keiko Ashida was born in Toyama prefecture, Japan and moved to Tokyo when she was young. After graduating with a BFA from Musashino Art University, Keiko apprenticed with master potters in the traditional pottery town of Mashiko. She worked at the Hasegawa Ceramics Company before moving to the US in 1998. Keiko has had numerous exhibitions of her work in Japan and the US. An enthusiastic and engaging teacher, Keiko has taught pottery making since arriving in the US.
Emily Bicht
Emily has been an active artist in NYC and the Hudson Valley for over twenty years and a member of several artist groups, including The Exhibitionists and Open Ground. She received a BFA from Moore College of Art and Design and an MFA from Brooklyn College, City University of New York. Her work incorporates a variety of mediums, including ceramics, painting, printmaking, and sculpture. She teaches ceramics at Garrison Art Center, Cedar Lane Art Center, Peekskill Clay Studio, and Kroll Ceramic Arts School. Emily lives in Peekskill with her traveling companion and teenage cyclones.
Website: www.emilybicht.com
Instagram: emilybicht
Heather Houston
Heather Houston was born in 1977 in Panama City, Florida. After a semi nomadic military upbringing that helped develop her appreciation for the folkways of different cultures, she attended the University of Georgia at Athens. She studied with Ted Saupe and Andy Nasisse while completing her BFA in Ceramics, where she began to explore the possibilities of the whimsical figure. The pursuit of her MFA led her to Albuquerque, New Mexico, where she studied at the University with Gina Bobrowski and Bill Gilbert and participated in the groundbreaking Land Arts of the American West program. Her solo MFA show, Liminal Colony, drew the attention of the Clay Art Center in Port Chester, NY, where she completed a one year artist residency culminating in a solo
show, Horses in Midstream. She then accepted a position at the Silvermine Arts Center as the ceramic studio technician/manager and ceramics instructor. In this role, she gradually became more and more interested in making functional work, particularly hand built pieces, and experimenting with glazes. After becoming a mother, she left studio management but continues to teach and make work at Silvermine Arts Center. Current work centers on showing the touch of the artist’s hand, making unexpected shapes, and creating a jewel like glaze surface. She continues to pursue her education by attending workshops with some of the top ceramic artists in the country. She lives and works in Norwalk, CT.
David Hughes
Since he began his teaching career in 1999, David has taught ceramics to hundreds of students of all ages. He has served as an adjunct ceramics professor at a number of colleges and community art centers, in and around Westchester County. His work is primarily functional stoneware, lately he has been exploring more sculptural forms. Currently David is a full-time Visual Art faculty member at the King School in Stamford, CT, and teaches classes at The Katonah Art Center in Mt Kisco, NY.
Website: www.davidhughespottery.com
Robin Kline
Robin Kline’s studio experience throughout the Hudson Valley includes working as an Associate and teaching at Mugi Studio on the Upper West Side, the JCC Manhattan, and Pottery on Hudson in Dobbs Ferry. She has been a member of the Peekskill Clay Studios at the Hat Factory, has taught at and managed the pottery studio at the Putnam Arts Council, taught at Cedar Lane Arts Center, and served as President of the Peekskill Artists’ Alliance for 7 years.
As a potter, Robin love to interact with the clay’s vitality. The process of throwing, forming a pot on the wheel, completely engages her. She loves the challenges of continually trying to refine forms and gets great pleasure from sharing her love and knowledge of throwing with students. The phrase that characterizes her esthetic is to achieve “movement in stillness”.
Clare Lewis
Clare Lewis has a degree from Smith College (Northampton, MA) and also studied at the Cornell University Summer Studios in Art (Ithaca, NY), Brookfield Craft Center (Brookfield, CT) and John C. Campbell Folk School (Brasstown, NC). Past teaching credits include Brookfield Craft Center, the Katonah Art Center (Ceramics Director), Northern Westchester Center for the Arts (Head of Ceramics), Farmington Valley Arts Center and Silvermine School of Art. A member of NCECA and the Silvermine Guild of Artists, she exhibits her work regionally. Clare started out as a functional potter but found her interests also led her to more sculptural forms. For her functional work, the accent is on beautiful forms and gorgeous glazes. For the more sculptural work, she starts by throwing
simple yet elegant forms and then alters her pieces by pushing or stretching the clay with her hands or adding more clay and texture. During the glazing process, she tries to bring a sense of freedom to her technique that translates into the visual appearance of the piece after firing. The right balance of form, design, color, and texture is the goal. And when teaching, Clare stresses this balance, as well as the need for contrast in a piece to create drama and interest.