Mary became enamored with clay in high school and majored in art at Colorado College. A suggestion that she apply for an internship at the Bemis School of Art at the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center led to a full-time position and a rewarding career in arts education. She has especially enjoyed teaming with local museums, visiting artists, and arts organizations with her students.
Mary received a Masters in Experiential Education with a K-12 Art endorsement from the University of Colorado, Boulder, and furthered her studies in the outstanding Santa Fe Clay programs. She co-founded Clay Bodies and Mud-luscious Pottery in Boulder before opening a home studio, from which she has hosted many shows.
Good fortune brought Mary to the amazing art capital of Santa Fe, New Mexico. She is grateful to have taught art at Wood Gormley Elementary School for 17 years where she built a rich arts program incorporating the Teaching for Artistic Behavior (TAB) pedagogy.
Mary has more time for her studio work now. Whimsical clayworks are the focus of late—encounters with grouse, and one particular towhee fascinated by his reflection in the window of her home, inspired her most recent series of birds.
Artist Statement:
I grew up in a huge Midwestern family and discovered early that I was a visual learner — a lover of objects, flowers and working with my hands. My grandfather Bop’s basement shop especially called to me. I found pottery making in high school and immediately felt at home.
During my thirty eight years as an arts educator I created an art space where children’s fresh and spontaneous creativity inspired one another, while also reminding me to bring that same freedom of expression into my clay studio.
I love the utilitarian arts, most of all pottery: the draw of mud and fire, the warm hearted craft community. I adore the joy and beauty that ceramics can bring to daily life. I make work for the table, for the garden, and sculpted objects for the home.
Currently I am making functional and sculptural pieces with red earthenware clay. Ornamentation is important to me, and nature motivates me as I draw into the colored slips and terra sigillatas. My glaze palette brings warm yellows, copper and chrome greens, purples and chocolate browns to the red-orange of the clay.
Most of my sculptural pieces of late have been birds — towhee, titmouse, quail, grouse and an array of invented avians. They begin with wheel thrown forms which I paddle and shape into bird bodies and heads. Once assembled, I create textured slabs, handbuild wings, tails and adornments.
My functional pieces — platters, lidded jars, stacked vase forms, pie dishes and elevated pieces are thrown and often altered while fresh from the wheel, before rims and feet are scalloped and carved. Stylized flowers, plants, birds and abstractions create a riot of imagery.
Mary Olson Clay Works 