Tom Bottman – Guest Artist

About the Art:

We have our home and studio in the Hood River valley, with great I was introduced to clay in college, graduating from the University of Utah with a BA in English literature and a minor in art, taking lots of pottery classes with Dorothy Berenson. After graduation, my wife and I made our living for 18 years as full time potters, working with the American Craft Council shows in San Francisco, Dallas and Baltimore. During that time we sold in art and craft galleries around the country. Our home studio was in Salt Lake City, Utah. We gave up the handmade pottery business in 1988, and developed several lines of commercial stoneware, based on our designs, that we had made in Japan. That business grew into a gift ware and greeting card business that we sold in 2015. We retired to Hood River and I set up my pottery studio again. I am loving it! There is just something about working with clay that I love – the feel of it, the smell of it, the looks of it all soft and pliable and asking to be made into something. I find it to be the ideal medium for working with texture and pattern. In my work, I use found material for overall textures, handmade pattern rollers and some commercial rollers. The pieces are finished with stains and underglazes that are washed back, leaving the color in the depressions.

Links:

Online shop: www.etsy.com/shop/icyroadpottery

Instagram: www.instagram.com/icyroadpottery

Facebook: www.facebook.com/tom.bottman.3

Email: tpbottman@gmail.com