Watershed is pleased to announce our 2025 Salad Days Artist-in-Residence: Emily Armstrong! Originally from Long Island, New York, Armstrong moved to Portland, Maine, to pursue a degree in ceramics at the Maine College of Art & Design. Watershed, she says, was always on her radar. From a class field trip to the studio to… Read more »
Posts Categorized: Salad Days
Interview with Grace Tessein
During the early days of the pandemic, 2022 Salad Days Artist Grace Tessein found herself seeking opportunities to spend time in nature. While hiking near her home in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, she collected broken eggshells from hatched birds, feathers, animal bone fragments, flowers, and leaves. Tessein illustrated the surfaces of her ceramic work with the… Read more »
Salad Days Recipes
While Salad Days won’t take place on campus this year, we can still offer our community some delicious salad dishes to make and savor at home. The following recipes come courtesy of Marguerite Grifka, a talented chef from the San Diego area who was slated to cook at Watershed in 2020. Please share your Salad… Read more »
Salad Days: Still Green After 25 Years
Never underestimate the creative potential of a job interview. In 1995, Watershed Co-Founder Chris Gustin interviewed Lynn Thompson (then located in Tennessee) for the organization’s executive director position. Understanding that fundraising would be an important part of the job, Thompson considered ideas that might impress Gustin. “I had it in my mind that gardening… Read more »
2019 Salad Days
Thank you to everyone who made 2019 Salad Days such a special occasion at Watershed! This community event began as a small picnic and has grown to have an attendance of nearly 600 people. Celebrating the 25th Salad Days with the support of guests and visitors from near and far felt very special to us…. Read more »
2018 Salad Days
On July 14, Watershed welcomed nearly 600 visitors to Salad Days, a celebration of local food and handcrafted ceramics. This annual art- and craft-filled festival features a picnic buffet of fresh salads that guests enjoy on handmade ceramic plates that they keep. 2018 Salad Days Artist Christina Bendo lived and worked at Watershed during… Read more »
The History of Watershed’s Clay
Ever wonder about how we go about making our clay at Watershed? Studio Manager Wm. Reeder Fahnestock shares the process we use, along with historical background and geologic context for Maine’s rich history of clay-processing and brick production. Maine’s Geological and Brick-Making History Maine’s mountains are considered some of the oldest on Earth. Comprising the… Read more »
Meet Liz Hafey: Watershed’s 2016 Salad Days Artist
Liz Hafey spent last summer at Watershed, making over 500 plates for this year’s Salad Days. Liz completed her BFA at Massachusetts College of Art in 2013 and earned a post baccalaureate certificate from UMass Darmouth in 2014. She spent the following year participating in residencies at Truro Center for the Arts in Massachusetts and… Read more »