Grace Potter
Grace Potter (b. 1996, Knoxville, TN) is an artist who primarily works with ceramic to make sculptures exploring themes of ecology, femininity and cycles of life and death. She received her BFA in Ceramics with minors in Art History and Anthropology from the University of Colorado, Boulder (2018). Grace has completed two Post-baccalaureates, one at Louisiana State University (2019) and the other at the University of Oklahoma (2023). She has spent time working at the Mendocino Art Center in Mendocino, CA (2020-2022), Cider Creek Collective in Albion, CA (2022), Good Hope Pottery in Trelawny, Jamaica (2023), and IaRex l’Atelier in St. Raphael, France (2023). She is currently living and working in Mendocino, CA.
I first met Mandi in an online workshop she was teaching through the Mendocino Art Center. We stayed in touch over the years and she invited me to a two week residency in France with several accomplished ceramists she had brought together. This was a pivotal opportunity for me to connect with artists working in all stages of their careers. I often return to the feeling of camaraderie (I’m not alone!) and the many bits of wisdom I gleaned from those two weeks.
This past fall I began working for Mandi as her remote studio assistant. It has been a joy working with her. Not only do I learn a lot from helping her with the inner workings of her practice, but she is also mentoring me in my own. For the first time in my life I am working to maintain a studio practice outside of a program or institution. It has been challenging navigating what life looks like as an artist without external structure, but Mandi has been a guiding light. She is always encouraging me to put my studio first, a reminder I need often when it is easy to get swept up in the day to day pressures of life. I am grateful to have met Mandi and feel she is an integral part of my journey as an artist.