Making art with clay
Published 1:30 am Wednesday, June 3, 2026
By Peggy Sue McRae
Journal contributor
Most of us are familiar with the paintings of Georgia O’Keeffe. Well known for her sensual flower paintings and the curved shapes of sun-bleached bones against the New Mexico landscape, we are not as familiar with her clay pots and ceramic sculpture. O’Keeffe took up ceramics late in her career. She was 87 when her young assistant, then 27-year-old Juan Hamilton, a ceramic sculptor, introduced her to working with clay. Hamilton, originally hired by O’Keeffe to do odd jobs, eventually became her close friend, confidant and finally her end-of-life caregiver. O’Keeffe, who lived to be 98, continued to work into her late years, yet her changing health, especially her eyesight, failing due to macular degeneration, pushed her, with Hamilton’s encouragement, to experiment with clay and working in three dimensions. She said at the time, “The thing that makes you want to create is still there.”
Hamilton introduced O’Keeffe to the pottery wheel. As her sight failed, ceramics became her new medium for self-expression. With Hamilton’s assistance in the 1980s, she produced a whole new body of work. The smooth, rounded curves of her ceramic work express the same natural sensuality of her paintings but in a different material and in three dimensions. Besides clay pots, O’Keeffe created abstract sculptural forms in clay.
Said O’Keeffe, “A young potter came to the Ranch and as I watched him work with the clay, I saw that he could make it speak. The pots that he made were beautiful shapes – very smooth – near to sculpture. I hadn’t thought much about pottery, but now I thought that maybe I could make a pot, too – maybe a beautiful pot – it could become still another language for me.”
If you have an urge to try your own hand at forming artworks in clay, Alchemy Arts Center and the Mullis Center are presenting a free art workshop, Handbuilt Animal Jars, on Friday, June 5, from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at the Mullis Center. Students will learn how to hand-build a small jar and ornament it with an animal handle of their own choosing.
Alchemy Arts, artist in residence, ceramic artist Ivy Mattson will lead the workshop. Students will decorate their jars with simple carving techniques and under-glaze, with the option to use high-fire glazes as well. This is a great opportunity to try a new medium and experiment with techniques.
Alchemy Arts Center is a local nonprofit dedicated to making the arts accessible on San Juan Island. Partnering with the Mullis Center, they provide free art classes and workshops that are a benefit to members of the Mullis Center. Maybe, like Georgia O’Keeffe, you could make a pot too — maybe a beautiful pot! Please join us if you are so inclined. Classes are limited to 10 students. To register for the workshop, please email info@mulliscenter.org.
