Maura Miller

The first time I remember working in clay, other than Playdoe, was when I was in the fourth grade and living in Fresno, CA.  The soil in our back yard had such a high clay content. The soil in our garden would dry so hard after it was tilled that it could cut your feet if you were barefoot.  I knew that store bought clay had “special ingredients” so I created my own clay recipe, which included our back yard dirt, ground up walnut shells, and other interesting inclusions.  At that time, I loved to create dinosaurs, lizards, and many fanciful creatures.  The focus of my work has changed over the years, but my love for working in clay will never end.

          I mostly worked sculpturally until I took my first pottery class at Fresno City College.  This was also my first introduction to the wheel and I will have to say it was not a pleasant encounter.  I soon returned to hand building and mostly created vessels.  I started to make larger scale sculptural works while attending the University of California at Santa Barbara.  I was very interested in figurative works, masks, and raku firing.  I graduated from UCSB with a double Major in Cultural Anthropology and Studio Art in 1990. 

          I went off to become an archeologist and see the world for the next seven years.  I worked on projects in California, Texas, the Marianas Islands, Hawaii, and Illinois.  I also traveled throughout Asia, the Middle East, Indonesia, and Europe.  It was hard to work in clay while I was an archeologist, since I was often living in tents, motel rooms, and company housing.  I was able to teach both children and adults, about the prehistory of Illinois, at the Center for American Archeology in Kampsville, IL from 1994 - 2000.   Basically I taught students about Illinois prehistory through hands-on experiences.  We actually had to collect and process the clay, in the ceramics class, before we could make our vessels.  At this time, I also produced ceramic reproductions of prehistoric vessels for museum gift stores. 

          I decided to become more involved with clay again in 1997. I took post-graduate classes in ceramics at Southern Illinois University in Edwardsville for 2 years.  I mostly created small hand-built sculptural pieces.  Many of these objects looked as though they were a combination of something created by man and by nature. I also worked some on the wheel.  I was introduced to thrown and altered ceramics and immediately fell in love with the process.

          I came to Terra Studios as an apprentice in January of 2001.  Terra is located east of Fayetteville, Arkansas.  I am currently renting studio space at Terra and I occasionally teach classes.  I still hand-build and throw on the wheel.  Many of my vessels are a combination of both.  I work both sculpturally and functionally and I still enjoy throwing and altering vessels (There is nothing like distorting a round pot). I do not think I could ever keep my hands out of clay.  I have so much more to learn and experience that I cannot give up now.     

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