Courtney Martin is a full time studio potter living in Bakersville, NC with her husband, glass artist John Geci and their two kids.

Raised on Long Island outside of New York City, she travelled west to attend undergraduate school, receiving her BFA from the University of New Mexico. Shortly afterward she moved to the mountains of North Carolina near Penland School of Crafts and apprenticed with several potters including Cynthia Bringle and Michael Kline. In 2006, Martin established her own studio and in 2007 she was awarded a Regional Artist Project grant for the construction of her cross draft wood kiln. In 2010 Martin was honored with a solo exhibition of her work in Okinawa, Japan.

Martin’s work is an physical expression of her life. Her interests in food, gardening and sustainability inform the choices that she has made about her working process. From using local clay and firing her wood kiln with scrap and discarded wood from a local saw mill, Courtney is able to make her environmental footprint as close to carbon neutral as possible. Using a kick wheel and firing in a wood kiln has encouraged her to slow down, to connect with each piece more closely, to consider how it will be used in its’ final home and to be more directly involved in the firing process.

Each form is simple and rustic. Each pot has a presence, a heft that imparts that it will hold up to repeated use. The use of bold lines, geometric patterns and incised shapes provide a graphic visual on the surface of each piece. Courtney’s use of platonic solid patterns on the surface of a large serving tray or the concentric circles of a bullseye on the interior of large bowl add a contemporary flavor to her work. The patterns or lines are added with a wax resist then glazed with the use of a rich temmoku, bold white or a warm honey glaze. The wax resist patterns are then pulled away exposing the raw clay and when fired in the wood kiln attract ash to the rim or shoulder of a pot. This additional layer accentuates the form and glazes, providing a juiciness to the surface. The clean lines of her forms are reinforced by the bold line quality of her decoration and create a unified modernist esthetic to her rustic wares.

We are looking forward to having Courtney with us for the first time this year at SXPF.

To see more of her work visit www.courtneymartinpottery.com