Artist Interviews

In 1991 Chris Campbell attended a class given by Jane Peiser, a famous North Carolina potter at the Sertoma Arts Center in Raleigh, thus sparking her 30-year career as a professional Colored Porcelain Artist. “I was thrilled by the vibrant colors I could use to create and decorate my pottery by using colored porcelain.” She […]

“I wandered into a Tandy Leather store in Lubbock Texas and came out with a starter set of tools and some basic projects,” Harber recalls of the beginnings of his serious work with leather in the 1980s. He had grown up on a dairy and horse farm in Oklahoma, and had experience in repairing halters […]

“I was chatting with my friend just before church,” Kathy reflects. “She was contemplating doing something different and interesting and I was excited by the idea.” The something different and interesting turned out to be painting classes given by Chatham Artists Guild member Kathy Flood, who lived nearby. The two friends attended watercolor classes and […]

Kristin Bergsten – Handwoven Originals Fiber artist Kristin Bergsten has been weaving since she was 6 years old. “I was at home sick, and my mother went to the Woolworth’s Five and Dime. She came back with little kits to make potholders.” Born in Evanston Illinois, Kristin was living at the time with her adoptive […]

Hamidou Sissoko immigrated to the US in 2001 from the Francophone West African country Mali. “I grew up fixing cars and bikes.  As I got older, I learned more and more, I started fixing more complex equipment. We never wasted any materials in Mali and would always find creative ways to repair things.” In the US, […]

Anna Julian hails from Cherryville, NC, about 40 miles west of Charlotte. “My fascination with pottery and art started as a young girl.” Anna’s grandmother lived in the mountains of Montreat, NC and took her to the Southern Highland Craft Guild’s Folk Art Center on the Blue Ridge Parkway near Asheville. “It was there that […]

When Brooklyn born Steevie Parks was growing up on Long Island, she dreamed of being either an artist or an actress. She studied classical oil painting as well as theater from the ages of 9 to 22. Then studied anatomy, sculpture, printmaking, painting and drawing at the Arts Student’s League of New York, Syracuse University, and Sarah […]

Nestled in the rolling hills near Chatham’s Bear Creek is Inspired Earth Pottery. There, ceramic artist Lynn Flyer, responding to her surrounding natural beauty, creates her own world of flowers, butterflies, dragonflies, birds, and other delights in the form of functional pottery. She has been seriously making pottery for about 12 years. She and her […]

Working as a Molecular Biologist at the University of Maryland, Quimby had always had a strong interest in creative avenues. “As a child my mother took me to museums and plays, instilling in me a life-long love of the arts,” she recalls “I think that I had always wanted to be an artist.” Boots (her father’s […]

Carolyn is a creative that has been involved in some form of art all her life. Her degree is in Fashion Merchandising and she worked in retail, becoming a buyer for a women’s clothing chain in Chicago. After her children came along, she switched to a more family-friendly career in marketing. Upon moving to North […]

Painter Cally Curtis’s Chatham studio is a kaleidoscope of color and pattern. Her acrylic and mixed media creations reflect deep seated inspiration dating back to her childhood. “When I was about four, my parents were commissioned as United Methodist missionaries. They were stationed in the subtropics in what was then called Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe. I […]

“I love wood,” says woodturner Greg Wandless. ”I love the feel, the warmth, the look, the way it warms up a home.” Visitors to the 2020 Chatham Studio the first two weekends in December will have the opportunity of experiencing Greg’s beautiful wooden bowls, art vessels, peppermills and custom writing instruments. Greg has been working […]

“I just love to make something useful and beautiful with my own two hands,” explains potter Amy Wandless. “It is even more thrilling when a pot that came from my eye and my hands appeals to the eyes and hands of someone who lives with it, uses it and loves it.” Amy will display her […]

“I am fascinated with facial expressions and the eyes of the people and animals that I paint,” explains Kathy flood.  She will make her debut in the Chatham Studio Tour the first weekend in December, exhibiting her works in graphite, watercolor and acrylics in her Briar Chapel studio. Kathy became an artist in a non-traditional […]

Jane Eckenrode drew a picture of her father at the age of 6, at about the time her parents enrolled her in her first art class. As a child, she and her dad spent time together walking in the woods and fishing. She still has the cigar box of natural treasures she collected as a […]

Minnie Gallman took her first photograph, with a brownie box camera, at the age of 4.  “It was a picture of my newborn sister,” she remembers.” I’ve been taking pictures ever since.” Folks who come to the 2020 Chatham Studio Tour will see the results of Minnie’s life-long passion in the nature-inspired photographs that she […]

Vince Pitelka — Vince Pitelka Pottery “I have always been fascinated with tools and machines and working with my hands,” says studio potter Vince Pitelka. “I had a little shop at our house as a kid,” he remembers.  Pitelka had a formative experience with clay at the age of four.  A friend of his parents […]