April 1 – 27, 2025
Sales Gallery & Online
Emily Christopherson (EMRIS), Amanda Dobbratz, Jill Foote-Hutton, Jamie Lang, Melissa Mencini, Ian M Petrie, Tricia Schmidt
April Featured Artists: Emily Christopherson (EMRIS), Amanda Dobbratz, Jill Foote-Hutton, Jamie Lang, Melissa Mencini, Ian M Petrie, Tricia Schmidt
About the Artists
Emily Christopherson (EMRIS)
Chicago, IL
Emily Christopherson has always been drawn to working with her hands and the intrinsic community that clay creates—ceramics is where she finds solace. She earned a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2016, then in 2017 joined Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts (Newcastle, ME) as a summer staff member, where she further solidified her artistic voice. After returning home to Chicago, Christopherson founded EMRIS, the brand under which she produces everyday tableware and home goods. Outside of her artistic practice, Christopherson remains engaged in the surrounding communities through teaching adults and youth across the city.
Amanda Dobbratz
South Saint Paul, MN
Amanda Dobbratz graduated with a Masters in Research in creative practice from Glasgow School of Art (UK). Previously, she received a BFA in studio art from the University of Wisconsin–Stout. Dobbratz was a lead artist at the Watershed Artists Inviting Artists summer residency program (Newcastle, ME) in 2019 and an invited artist in 2017. She makes functional, complex handbuilt forms which marry the whimsical and the pragmatic, often conveying a sense of play and humor. Dobbratz is a believer of “more is more,” and the richly-detailed surfaces of her work serve as an elegant testament to that sentiment. Her colors and patterns reference desert landscapes, body ornamentation, and historical textiles. She distills shapes and colors from her sources into a personal taxonomy of symbols.
Jill Foote-Hutton
Raytown, MO
Whether spinning her own tales, chronicling observations from the world of clay and the world at large, or facilitating other’s voices through word and form, Jill Foote-Hutton has always been committed to the craft of storytelling. Born and raised by the descendants of hillbillies, Foote-Hutton is an artist following in the tradition of medicine woman and storyteller through her creative practice dubbed Whistlepig Studio. “Monster” is a device she uses to engage a conversation about the disparities of what we think and what we do, about the distance between two human beings, and the nature of lightness and darkness. She posits that totem, talisman, god, demon, angel, witch, hero, and spirit (from any tradition) have been equally used as devices of liberation and oppression. Renamed “Guardian Monsters” in her practice, Foote-Hutton, aims to seize the power of those objects from an authoritarian state of mind and put power back into the hearts and minds of the individual. They are a shibboleth. They are an interpretation. They are multivalent.
Jamie Lang
St. Paul, MN
Jamie Lang received his BFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago and pursued his graduate studies in ceramics at the State University of New York, New Paltz. He received two Project Grants from the Jerome Foundation in St. Paul, the first in 2002 and the second in 2006. Lang’s work reflects his thoughts about architecture, decoration, and memory. His mixed media sculptures are minimal geometric structures that reveal their own architectural planning. Each structure is created by casting adobe into wooden forms, Lang then adds layers of plaster, pigment, and wax to emphasize and decorate the rough surfaces of the form. The altered surfaces of each layer assert the passage of time and the burying and recovery of memories.
Ian M Petrie
Philadelphia, PA
Ian Petrie received his BFA in ceramics from the University of Minnesota in 2013. He was awarded the Fogelberg Studio Fellowship at Northern Clay Center in 2013 and served as a resident artist at the Worcester Center for Crafts (MA) from 2016-2018. Petrie’s body of functional pottery devotedly references the comic book universe and celebrates the tradition of illustration. Using a quill pen to draw each comic frame and then screen-printing the narratives by hand, his pots reveal an intentionally imperfect style. The gold or silver luster on his pieces is designed to slowly wear off over time and reveal the image beneath. Petrie encourages the user to consider the presented single moment of the story, and learn to experience it from all angles.
Tricia Schmidt
St. Paul, MN
Tricia Schmidt has had a lifelong love of clay and illustration, and she marries the two in her functional and sculptural work. As a primarily self-taught artist, she embraces an aesthetic that is informed by the joy of doodling on a fresh sheet of paper and the satisfaction of a voluptuously curving form. Schmidt’s animals and figures are often self-referential, but universal enough to appeal to a larger audience through the use of her favorite motifs: ambivalent sloths, playful cats, industrious bunnies, malevolent squirrels, and introspective women. She references folklore in her archetypal red birds, symbolizing those who have passed on but are still watching over us.
Melissa Mencini
Austin, TX
Melissa Mencini received her BFA from Bowling Green State University in 2000 and her MFA from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale in 2003. Mencini moved to Austin, Texas in 2013 to be a full-time studio artist and educator. Since moving to Austin, she has built and established her studio and she has become a core member of the Art of the Pot annual studio tour. Previous to her move south, she taught ceramics at the University of Alaska-Anchorage. Before moving to Alaska, she moved back and forth between Montana and Washington state, working as a studio artist and teaching at both Eastern Washington University and at the University of Washington-Seattle. During her first stay in Montana, Mencini was a resident at the Archie Bray Foundation for the Ceramic Arts in Helena for two years and was the recipient of the Lincoln Fellowship for one year. She became interested in art at an early age and enrolled in classes at a local art center in her hometown of Cleveland, Ohio. Her current focus is making functional pottery embellished with graphic designs and decals. Mencini has exhibited her work nationally and internationally.