On view: June 30 – July 26, 2026
Sales Gallery & Online
Tom Jaszczak, Ernest Miller, Lisa Orr, Brent Pafford, Colleen Riley
July Featured Artists: Tom Jaszczak, Ernest Miller, Lisa Orr, Brent Pafford, Colleen Riley
About the Artists
Tom Jaszczak
Shafer, Minnesota
Originally from Minnesota, Tom Jaszczak received a BA in visual art and a BS in biology with a minor in chemistry from Bemidji State University (MN). Jaszczak was an assistant to both Simon Levin and Tara Wilson. He was a summer resident and a long-term resident at the Archie Bray Foundation. In the fall of 2015, Jaszczak began a three-year residency with his wife, Maggie Jaszczak, at the Penland School of Craft (Mitchell County, NC). In 2018, the Jaszczaks put down permanent roots in Shafer, Minnesota, where they live in a farmhouse and work in a barn-style studio. Jaszczak has received several awards and honors including, a Jerome Ceramic Artist Project Grant, ECRAC Essential Artist Award, Emerging Artist Award through NCECA, as well as Ceramics Monthly, Lincoln, and Lillstreet Fellowships through the Archie Bray Foundation. In the summer of 2014, Jaszczak was an Honored Maker at the Maker’s Faire at the White House in Washington, DC. Jaszczak’s current body of work comprises a range of pots made of red earthenware that explore minimalism and are finished with a cone 2 soda-fired surface.
Ernest Miller
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Ernest Miller is a ceramic artist working in Minneapolis, Minnesota. His ceramics career has been built through showing work in various regional and national art fairs, including the Uptown Art Fair (Minneapolis) and the Smithsonian Craft Show (Washington, D.C.). Miller credits a formal education as an essential part of early personal growth as an artist. Educators and mentors played a role in exposure to ideas, resources, and processes that he continues to utilize today. Miller studied at Olney Central College (Olney), and received his BFA from Eastern Illinois University (Charleston). Miller shares his ceramic technique and experience teaching pottery classes at the Minnetonka Center for the Arts (Wayzata, MN).
Lisa Orr
Northborough, Massachusetts
Lisa Orr completed an MFA at The New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University in 1992. She has been awarded a Fulbright and National Endowment for the Arts fellowship through Mid-America Arts Alliance. Orr taught high school ceramics in Austin, Texas, and travels extensively for lectures and workshops. She creates low-fire pottery intended for use in everyday life. Though rooted in the deep history of ceramics, her forms are fluid and often gently asymmetrical—a combination of the clay’s natural expression and her own inspiration in the moment. Her slip work and relief decorations along with her rich colors suggest images of sky, coral reef, or flowers in bloom. The work is a riot of color, energy, memories, and emotion, all of which come together to create finished work that is cohesive and confident.
Brent Pafford
Eugene, Oregon
Brent Pafford received his BFA in sculpture and ceramics from Winthrop University (Rock Hill, SC) in 2011, and his MFA in ceramics from Clemson University (SC) in 2014. Pafford explores the values of daily objects created, manufactured, or brought throughout generations. His most recent study of these objects, GlamCraft, “explores contemporary culture through assemblage of process and materials.” This experimentation with materials creates a meaningful conversation about the traditions of the craft movement.
Colleen Riley
Eureka, Minnesota
Colleen Riley’s work is a reflection of her connection to the ever-changing rural environment surrounding her home studio in Eureka Township, Minnesota, 30 miles south of Minneapolis. Her pots celebrate the historic ceramic tradition of decorative botanical imagery by employing the patterns and textures of the Minnesota landscape—spring wildflowers, a carpet of decaying leaves in the woods, or the contours of a freshly plowed field. Early 20th century European objects and the strong lines of mid-century furnishings, prints, and textiles inspire her forms. Atmospheric firing gives a complex, aged quality to the clay’s surface, adding an element of surprise, which ensures that each piece is lively, unique, and inviting to the touch.