WEST BETHEL — Martha Grover and Joshua Rysted – of 630 West Bethel Rd., Bethel – are two of 54 potters on this year’s Maine Pottery Tour.
Joshua’s website (jdrpottery.square.site/) describes him as follows:
“Joshua David Rysted is a small batch potter who creates functional, wheel-thrown and slab-built pottery made one-at-a-time by hand. A transplant to Maine, Joshua hails from Montana where he formerly managed the retail store at the Archie Bray Foundation Clay Business. As of 2020, he started working for Skutt Ceramic Products providing technical kiln and firing support to customers worldwide.
“Joshua and his wife, Martha Grover, a Bethel native and rockstar potter, have returned to the area to be near family and open a pottery studio in West Bethel. When he is not at the potter’s wheel or on the Skutt tech support hotline, Joshua can be found on the ski slopes, playing ball with his dog, Maggie, or struggling through building renovations at the studio.
“Joshua holds a B.A. in Communication Studies from Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, Minnesota. He has been working with clay for over 20 years.”
“On her website (marthagrover.com), Martha describes herself as a functional potter, creating thrown and altered porcelain pieces. She attended Bennington College in Vermont, where she received her undergraduate degree in Architecture.
“After going to Syracuse University in New York as a fifth year student in Ceramics, she decided to pursue a graduate degree in clay. In 2007, Martha received her MFA in ceramics from the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth.
“Since then she was awarded the Fogelberg Fellowship for a residency at the Northern Clay Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and the Sage Scholarship for a summer residency at the Archie Bray Foundation in Helena, Montana.
“Martha completed a year long residency at Red Lodge Clay Center in Red Lodge, Montana in August 2009. She received the Taunt Fellowship at the Archie Bray Foundation in 2010.
“Her work can be found at the Red Lodge Clay Center, the Archie Bray Foundation, the Clay Studio of Missoula, Schaller Gallery, 18 Hands Gallery, Crimson Laurel Gallery, Charlie Cummings Gallery, and Cedar Creek Gallery. Her work has been published in Ceramics Monthly, Pottery Making Illustrated, Clay Times, 500 Pitchers, 500 Platters and Chargers, and 500 Vases. Martha’s work was featured on the cover of Ceramic Monthly’s May 2010 issue.
“I seek to enhance the experience of interacting with functional objects. I work toward creating a sense of elegance for the user while in contact with each porcelain piece. Reminiscent of orchids, flowing dresses, and the body, the work has a sense of familiarity and preciousness.
“Direct curves are taken from the female figure, as well as the fluidity of a dancer moving weightlessly across the floor. The space between elements is electrified with anticipation and tension. I think of the fluid visual movement around a piece, as a choreographer would move dancers across a stage. Transmitting desire – there is a sense of revealing and concealing, a layering of details that serves to catch our attention immediately and then the details draw us in, to make a closer inspection.
“In our lives, we often move past the objects surrounding us at a very quick pace. My work generates a moment to pause. My goal is create an undeniable presence, one that acts as an invitation to explore the work thoroughly, taking time to know all of its many facets. Only through sustained interaction we can truly know and appreciate someone or something.”
The Maine Pottery Tour is Saturday, April 30 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday, May 1 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Its free.
The tour is a self-guided driving tour of pottery and ceramics studios in Maine and one in New Hampshire. It’s a chance to meet the artists, peek in the kilns, see demonstrations, and shop for fine handmade pottery.
There are 54 studios on the tour this year. Visitors can learn more and plan your pottery road trip at www.mainepotterytour.org
The Maine Pottery Tour is funded in part by a grant from the Maine Arts Commission, an independent state agency supported by the National Endowment for the Arts.
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