a little studio is a small batch ceramic studio based in Northern California.
Whether through functional pottery thrown on the wheel, or hand-built ceramic objects, a little studio aims to create timeless work that embodies a warm minimalist aesthetic inspired by the vast and varied California landscape.
a little about Cynthia.
I am Northern California based ceramicist, artist and writer.
I make functional ceramics in a variety of clay bodies, utilizing both hand-built and wheel thrown techniques.
When I am not in the ceramic studio, often I can be found making poems, and other things. More about that work can be found here.
I earned an MFA in Sculpture from Cranbrook Academy of Art, with electives in Photography and 2D Design; an MBA in Design Strategy from the California College of Art; and a BS in English Literature from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, with minors in Creative Writing, Psychology, and Fine Art.
a little about clay.
The art of ceramics is a rich and rewarding practice that has much to teach us. Clay, with its ability to hold memory and transform, serves as a metaphor for the human experience.
As we work with clay, we bring to the practice all that we embody - our thoughts, feelings, dreams, fears, abilities, inabilities, our entire spirit - which may vary day to day or even moment to moment. This is true for hand-building, and is especially true for wheel-throwing. In order to bring the work into being, into its own center, we must always return to our own center, a discipline of embracing rather than rejecting. This is an ongoing engagement with experience, not a denial of any part. This metaphor can serve as a good guide for how to move through the world, continually returning to our center, allowing things to slip off course, while always recommitting to the journey back.
The physical nature of the work, which requires focus, concentration, and presence, is a form of moving meditation. The practice of ceramics widens our ability to tap into our inherent inner wisdom and intuition by cultivating and enacting this deep mindful awareness. It invites us to engage with our experiences in a holistic way. The finished work serves as a tangible manifestation of these inner states and experiences, a manifestation of the sacred, the divine. Of course, the practice of ceramics has a long history of these types of introspective inquiries.
In her beautiful meditation on the subject, the poet and artist M. C. Richards, in her book Centering, wrote, ““Center” and “centered” have come to be fairly widely used. They tend to imply a connection with the navel, with one-pointedness, on the way to bliss, realization, and inner peace. But these are not the goals of the Centering process. For it is a continual engagement with experience, not a withdrawal from it. It begins with pain and ends with paradox. It wrestles with evil and the daimonic as it does with angels and repentance. It is an activity of consciousness, not a stage of spiritual achievement.”