Ceramics Cooperative

Garick Tai-Lee

Garick’s first experience with clay was taking an intro wheel class at Dan Veto’s studio in the Southside.  After four weeks, Tai-Lee realized that he needed his own space to experiment and play.  This was around the same time he started at the Art Institute and was amazed when he found they had their own studio.  It was modest to say the least, there were only eight wheels, two electric kilns, they bought their glazes and fired to cone 6 oxidation, but it was at this time, that he found a real love for wheel throwing and started to spend a lot (maybe too much) of his time in the studio trying to improve his skills. Through the mentoring of Eric Hahn, he started to develop his own style and really began asking poignant questions about his work and the craft, these questions have structured his personal philosophy about ceramics, craft for craft’s sake. He seeks to incorporate his years of experience as an industrial designer into what he makes and desires the impact of function to be subtlety apparent, to quote a professor “...you don’t want to hit them in the face with a 2x4, but when they use it, it has to make sense.”  With design engrained through school and art experienced through hobby, Tai-Lee found a medium that necessitates both function and beauty to be successful.

After graduating from the Art Institute, he was a bit at a loss since the AIP studio was all he had experienced. Fortunately, the semester before he graduated, Justin Rothshank visited the Art Institute to do a demonstration on decals and to talk a little about Union Project.  He reached out to see if there was space at the studio and found an environment that was willing to accommodate any level potter and encouraged experimentation and exploration.  Working alongside potters at much higher levels, Tai-Lee soon developed a keen eye for what was important in functional work and in part represents much of what I love about the space.  It is an area where you are able to work at your own pace and to glean from others what interests you.  On top of being able to develop and learn he has been able to give back to the community space by teaching classes and monitoring open studio time.

Tai Lee says, “The studio has grown by leaps and bounds and keeps my creative juices flowing. I can’t picture myself working anywhere else.”

mitsugawapottery.com

Keith Hershberger

Keith has a BA in Art with a focus in Ceramics from Goshen College. He worked as a production potter for seven years and currently works as a Teaching Artist in the Ceramics Studio at the Manchester Craftsmen's Guild where he held a variety of positions over the last six years including Digital Arts Coordinator and Arts Integration Liaison. Keith is also a singer-songwriter and part of the duo the Too Tall Americanos. He enjoys watching the ocean, studying Renaissance Florence, and reading just about anything fiction he can get his hands on.

keithhershberger.net

Adam Conway

Adam is a full member of the Union Project Ceramics Co-op, teaching beginning and intermediate pottery classes and workshops and working with the rest of the Co-op membership to operate the studio. His commitment to community studio space is a product of having been self-taught in community studio environments over the past 10 years, where informal feedback and knowledge exchanges are always possible. He has taught classes to students with various levels of expertise at all different age levels, ranging from under two years old upwards. Adam makes and sells his own work in and around Pittsburgh and online under the name of Free Range Pottery, a nod to his rural upbringing in Vermont and his love for farmer's markets and fresh food.

freerangepottery.com

Joseph Delphia

Joe moved to Pittsburgh from Ohio in the fall of 2007. On his first day in town he found and joined to Ceramics Co-op at the Union Project and has never left. The facilities and community at Union Project have provided a stable support system and creative environment that have helped him make connections and focus on his artwork. Over the past four years he has taught ceramic and other studio courses at the Union Project, the Carnegie Museum of Art, the Manchester Craftsmen’s and the Community College of Allegheny County.

http://josephdelphia.com

Sarah Weyand

Sarah earned her BFA with a concentration in ceramics from Indiana University of Pennsylvania in 2005. She primarily focuses on hand-building and sculpture, and fires mostly raku and other primitive firing techniques. Recently she's been very interested in soda/salt firing plans to continue expanding her work with this firing method.Currently, she is employed as a therapist in the Greensburg area.

Nancy Trun

Nancy started work with clay in high school. She took a hiatus for college, grad school and a faculty job in the sciences. After getting tenure, she began again at the Union Project. First learning to make tile, then learning the basics of throwing and hand building. She is currently focusing on tile making.

James Shipman

Bio soon to come

Carina Cooiman

Carina is a new-to-the-area artist who is enjoying settling into the rhythm of Pittsburgh. Originally from Oregon, she studied Studio Art and French at Calvin College in Michigan before relocating to this part of the country. Carina has taught classes at Heartside Ministry and Hope Reformed Church, both in Grand Rapids, MI and is currently a member of the Union Project ceramics co-op in Pittsburgh. Carina's work spans a variety of styles, but hand building is her preferred mode of construction. You'll notice in her work that she loves the organic, asymmetrical, thin, and delicate and that her pieces often have a sculptural tendency. Please enjoy Carina's pieces by holding them as well as by looking - she is a firm believer in the tactile experience. "Since I make these pieces with my hands, it takes YOUR hands to full enjoy them."

Jamie Vandermolen

Bio soon to come

Jennifer Cloonan

Bio soon to come

Meghan Halftery

Meghan is a licensed social worker who enjoys working with clay in her spare time.  Since returning to Pittsburgh in 2006, she has taken several ceramics classes, both at Daniel Vito's studio in the Southside and at the Carnegie Museum of Art; the combination of classes has allowed her to experiment with both wheel thrown and hand built ceramics using a variety of clay mediums (including porcelain and stoneware) and glazes.  In need of a more consistent and flexible opportunity to continue expanding her inner potter, Meghan was pleased to learn about the Union Project's co-op while at the Pittsburgh Arts Festival in the summer of 2011.  The Union Project is a perfect fit, because in addition to growing in her personal artistic process, she is always looking for ways to integrate creativity and community into her career as a social worker.

Paula Romanishin

Bio soon to come

Susan Lane

"I've been making clay behave longer than most of my teachers have been alive. For me, there has been a seductiveness, a sensuality, almost a spirituality to grab a piece of the earth,wrestle with it,speak to it through my hands, and create an object that my hands can hold. I make functional things with porcelain: smooth, shiny, and bright. The Union Project has allowed me the freedom to work when I wish in a professional environment that's alive with creativity and enthusiasm"