August 5––September 27

Did you miss Watershed’s 2024 Salad Days celebration? Don’t fret: we’re pleased to share that Watershed’s Barkan Gallery is now brimming with beautiful, handcrafted ceramic pieces from our annual Invitational Pottery Sale, featuring artists from across the country and local to Maine.

The Barkan Gallery is now exhibiting: A Second Look, 2024 Pottery Invitational. Visit and browse functional ceramic wares, including cups, platters, wall hangings, vases, teapots, planters, and more. Our daily experiences––like a shared meal or a relaxing cup of tea––are only enhanced by the use of objects that are made and decorated by hand with care and passion.

FEATURED ARTISTS:

• Nicole Aquillano
• Emily Armstrong
• Sam Block of Sam Dodie Studio
• Taylor Callaway of Totally Shapes
• Dawn Candy of Little Sister Pottery
• Christine Caswell
• Tim Christensen
• Jenn Cole
• Indigo Cristol
• Dehmie Dehmlow
• Emmett Jorgensen
• Wade F. MacDonald
• Kate Marotz
• Marilyn Perry
• Ian M. Petrie
• Olivia Propeck
• Grace Tessein & Dennis Ritter of Sugar Jaws Pottery
• Also on view in our shop: Whitney Gill, Martha Grover, Anna Metcalfe, Justin Morgan, Karen Orsillo,  Malia Peoples of Melted Porcelain Liz Proffetty, Lynne Tan, and Meg Walsh of C&M Ceramics

Maine College of Art and Design and Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts are proud to present “Taking Shape: a Maine College Of Art and Design Ceramics Exhibition,” a showcase of exceptional artwork by students and faculty members from the Ceramics department. The exhibition will be on display in the Barkan Gallery at Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts from June 1st to July 17th, with a closing reception on July 12th from 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.

FEATURED ARTISTS:

“Taking Shape” showcases ceramic works by students and faculty of MECA&D. These include Master of Fine Arts (MFA) graduate Ian MacFarlane, graduating Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) seniors Emmett Jorgensen and Olivia Propeck, and rising BFA seniors Mickey Cunningham, Jesse Doubiago, Abigail Garthwaite, Roenick Goldman, Hannah Tripp, Clara Shafer, Bessa Smith, Halle Vishlitzky, and MECA&D Merit Show award winners Carnation Dusk, and Seraphina Helen Gillman. Also in this community exhibition are technician Yelani Steig and faculty members Julie Cunningham, Patrick Coughlin, Tyler Gulden, Cathy Hammond, and Kari Radasch.

Maine Craft Association’s annual Mentors & Apprentices exhibition featured work by artists who took part in the 2023 Craft Apprentice Program, including:

Matthew Arcara & Daniel Klingsberg
Richard Reitz Smith & Sharon Gallant
Sarah Haskell & Katherine Ferrier
Karen Orsillo & Jade Ruscio
Kristen Riley & Susan Beere
Lydia Johnson & Marian Baker
Mucuy Bolles & Richard Foye
Nicole Manganelli & Pilar Nadal
Sharon Gallant & Richard Reitz Smith

October 2022

EXHIBITING ARTISTS
Tim Christensen & Lisa Shepperd, ceramics
Emily O’Neil & Grace Foxen, fiber arts
Siem van der Ven & Jennifer Connor, ceramics
Alice Seeger & Amanda Affleck, fiber arts
Tyler Gulden & Rachel Herzer, ceramics

The Maine Craft Association’s Craft Apprentice Program, developed and offered in partnership with the Maine Arts Commission, provides Maine-based mentor craft artists and apprentices the opportunity to learn, create, and connect. The program is designed to advance and expand the apprentice’s craft studio practice and professional experience. 

Five mentor artist and apprentice pairs were selected for the 2022 program cycle and have worked side by side for seven months. Apprenticeships focused on foundational ceramic skills in glaze recipes, slab constructed reliquaries, wood & atmospheric kiln firing techniques, machine knit garments, and hand woven garments with a focus on naturally dyed fibers.

Summer 2022

Project M featured work by nine artists who took part in The Color Network’s 2021 residency at Watershed, including Isolina Minjeong Alva, Natalia Arbelaez, Adam Chau, April Felipe, Corrin Grooms, Salvador Jiménez-Flores, Sana Musasama, Alex Paat, and Isaac Scott.

The Color Network’s (TCN) mission is to aid in the advancement of people of color in the ceramic arts. They offer opportunities for artists to connect with one another, and have established a mentorship program that pairs emerging ceramists with more experienced artists working in clay. Over the course of several years, TCN and Watershed collaborated to organize and subsequently host a three-week artist residency focused on strengthening these mentor-mentee relationships. The majority of artists who joined the 2021 residency were participants in TCN’s mentorship program who primarily connect online. Their session at Watershed offered time and space to grow their creative practices and spend time together in person. Project M considers how the residency influenced the artists and draws attention to their broad scope of creative approaches, interests, and histories. Work featured in the exhibition was made during or influenced by the artists’ residency experience.

In 2022, a second cohort of artists taking part in TCN’s mentorship program are spending two weeks at Watershed from May 23 to June 3. Support for the residencies and for this exhibition was provided in part by the National Endowment for the Arts.

 October 2021

• Karin Otto & Karin Eberhardt, printmaking
• Lissa Hunter & Ashley Page, mixed media/basketry
• Tim Christensen & Aidan Fraser, wood fired ceramics
• Elaine Xenelis Fuller & Sheridan Cudworth, ceramics

ARTIST INFORMATION

Karin Otto (Ellsworth, ME)
Karin Otto’s work reflects the repetitive patterns of organic shapes and forms found in the natural world. Karin is fascinated with the depth and dimension that can be derived through the layering of texture and color in the printmaking process. Karin teaches printmaking and manages The Kennedy Press at Waterfall Arts, Belfast, ME. Karin also works as a human resources consultant, is a certified professional coach and an adjunct university lecturer in Human Capital Management. Karin has a BFA in Sculpture and
Ceramics and an MFA in Organizational Behavior.

Karin Eberhardt (Albion, ME)
Karin came to monoprint-making through a Waterfall Arts class in 2018 and has never looked back. Her images are gleaned from a 25-year career in international development aid in Southeast Asia, as well as adventures on Arctic rivers and tundra, Maine’s forests and scuba diving tropical seas. Her formal education includes a college semester studying painting at the Ecole de Beaux Arts in Brussels, Belgium; an MFA from the University of Southern Maine; and an MSc from Cornell University.

Lissa Hunter (Portland, ME)
Lissa Hunter is a studio artist, teacher, writer and, most recently, curator fortunate enough to be living and working in Portland, Maine. She is a Life Trustee of Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, a fellow of the Maine Arts Commission, an MCA Master Craft Artist and past board member of MCA. Her work is in the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution, the Museum of Arts and Design (New York), Museum of Fine Arts (Boston), Racine Art Museum (Wisconsin), as well as other museum and private collections.

Ashley Page (Portland, ME)
Ashley is an interdisciplinary artist living and working in Portland, ME. She presently holds a BFA in Sculpture and a Minor in Public Engagement from Maine College of Art (MECA). As a maker, a woman of color, a community organizer, a little sister, and a daughter, she creates space for dialogue, intergenerational exchange, and creative expression. She currently works at Indigo Arts Alliance, as their Studio and Programs Coordinator where she is able to learn within the intersection of art and activism. In spring 2020, she was awarded the Heart and Soul Student Award by Maine Campus Compact for her D.E.I work as a student at MECA. In 2018 – 2019, she was a Warren Public Engagement Fellow at MECA with Alejandra Cuadra where they collaboratively created an artistic philosophy of representation, diversity, equity, and justice. Her curatorial and studio practice has been seen in the Center for Afrofuturist Studies, The Abyssinian Meeting House, The Portland Public Library, Congress Square Park, Able Baker Contemporary, New Systems Exhibitions, Engine, and more.

Tim Christensen (Roque Bluffs, ME)
I live and work in Roque Bluffs in an off-grid home and studio I built with a former partner starting in 2009. I often fire my work at Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts, in Newcastle, Maine, using their wood and salt kilns to add varying amounts of chaos, chance, or natural variation to my controlled etchings.
I have been a potter since 1999, and working in black and white sgraffito on porcelain since 2004. I have shown my work all over the world, and this year completed a very limited edition book entitled “Reflect, Adapt, and Persevere” with co-author Carri Lange, about my travels and thoughts on environmental philosophy.

Aidan Fraser (Portland, ME)
I have lived in Damariscotta, ME my entire life until moving to Portland, ME, permanently two years ago after graduating from college. My hands have been in clay since the age of seven, but just over a year ago I began seriously exploring my craft and my message as an artist. For the past six months, I have worked out of Portland Pottery where I am currently initiating my new business Luster Hustler Ceramics.
My sense of self and belonging has been heavily influenced by the strong women in my small Maine communities and beyond. Through my work I aim to honor and immortalize them and their immense impact on my life and society. My work focuses on body positivity, acceptance and self love through exploration of the female form. Using 22 karat gold luster, I accentuate and highlight areas of the female body typically concealed by media and society at large.  My work simply would not exist without the undying support from my beautiful Maine communities. Because of that, I donate a percentage of my proceeds each month to local organizations under Luster Hustler Ceramics. Through my work and donations, I hope to emphasize the importance of a full-circle mentality focused on giving to those who have given to you, supporting local environments and people.

Elaine Xenelis Fuller (Kittery, ME)
Elaine began pottery classes at the Worcester Craft Center in 1978. Falling in love with clay work she continued her studies with classes, workshops and at Wesleyan University under Mary Risley where she received a Masters in Liberal Studies in 1983. She left her work in clay for 10 years to start a family.
Since her return to ceramics in 1993, she established the pottery business, Handmade By Elaine in a studio overlooking the South Cove in Old Saybrook, Connecticut where she worked teaching, mentoring and participating in the artistic community for 14 years.  In 2007 relocation brought her to the historic Kittery Foreside district to open The Red Door Pottery Studio in the former Knights of Pythias Hall where the pottery is made, lessons taught and guests are invited observe the creative passion of this place.  Elaine is the president of The Southern Maine Clay Guild, member of the New Hampshire Potters Guild and Maine Made and as of June 2009, a juried member of the League of New Hampshire Craftsmen. She is a charter member of the National Council of Ceramics Educators and the Potter’s Council.

Sheridan Cudworth (Kittery, ME)
Sheridan is a graduate of Maine College of Art in Portland Maine. Although her degree was in sculpture, she didn’t pursue pottery until moving to Kittery in 2013 when she enrolled in her first class with Elaine. Seven years later Sheridan has continued to expand her ceramic skillset while incorporating her experience working with various mediums such as illustration, printmaking, and sculpture. Sheridan values the seacoast community, her gardening practice, and fostering creative networks through local venues and art spaces.

September 2020

Outstanding in the Field offered a fresh approach to viewing clay-centric art during a time of social distancing due to the COVID-19 pandemic.   With the Barkan Gallery program suspended for 2020, we invited artists to submit project proposals for work to be installed on our 54-acre property. Natalia Arbelaez, Ruth Borgenicht, Dan Molyneux, and Anna Marie Valenti were selected to conceptualize and create new work on campus. The artists’ pieces create a dialogue with their surroundings, inviting viewers in as participants to examine and interact with the sculptural works.

October 2019

Watershed partnered with the Maine Craft Association (MCA) to host Masters & Apprentices. The show featured work by artists who took part in MCA’s 2019 Craft Apprentice Program. The seven pairs of master craftspeople and apprentices worked together over the course of nine months. Selected works made during the apprenticeship were included in this culminating exhibition.

The following images are from the exhibition opening on October 4, 2019 courtesy of the Maine Craft Association.

August 2019

Open House featured work by 2019 summer staff members: Laura Nave, Danielle Weigandt, Adam Redd, Stephen Mangione, Anna Kruse, Bianca Loscocco, Annie Morford, and Ashley Pfister, along with work by year-round Studio Manager Reeder Fahnestock. The show marked the opening of the Barkan Gallery to the public, and it was fitting to welcome friends and neighbors to the Joan Pearson Watkins house to see work that had been made by Watershed’s current staff-artists. The eight seasonal staff members lived and worked on Watershed’s campus from May through August. Their varied work veers from formal, colorful sculpture and installation to atmospheric functional pieces meant for everyday use.

July 2019

In conjunction with the 25^th  annual Salad Days celebration, Watershed invited guests for a sneak peek at the new Barkan Gallery featuring a special exhibition of work by members of Ceramic Sculpture Culture (CSC).  The CSC members, who are based all over the country, enjoyed two weeks together in July 2019, living and working alongside one another at Watershed. The exhibition included small works by collective members Hannah Cameron, David Kenton Kring, Ben Lambert, and Jamie Bates Slone, along with their invited artists Carly Slade, Jose Villalobos and Matthew Dercole.