Founder - Camp Verde, AZ

Ben Roti is a ceramic artist located in Arizona’s Verde Valley, a short drive from breathtaking Sedona where the Red Rocks have inspired his ceramics. He is a father to two young children, a dedicated husband, a teacher, and a studio potter.

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Bisbee, AZ

Heather is a Studio Potter who loves to create work inspired by nature. In 2012 she received her BFA from East Tennessee State University and later worked as a Resident Artist at Odyssey Clayworks in Asheville, NC. From 2017 to 2021 she traveled with a mobile pottery studio and exhibited work at festivals throughout the western United States. She currently resides in Bisbee, AZ with her sweet cattle dog named Kaia.

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Flagstaff, AZ

Professor Hess teaches Ceramics in the School of Art at Northern Arizona University. As a ceramic artist and avid wood fire practitioner, his research has focused on the alchemy of this process for the past 17 years. His artwork has been featured in over 125 exhibitions worldwide and he has participated in artist residencies at The Archie Bray Foundation and Red Lodge Clay Center, in Montana, and The Pottery Workshop, in Jingdezhen China. Jason Has an MFA from Utah State University.

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Phoenix, AZ

Jeff Heeg is a ceramic sculptor and potter, based in Phoenix, AZ. Jeff spent several years assisting Michael Frasca and Zoe Strecker in the Midwest. After relocation with his wife Stephanie to Phoenix, in 2004, Jeff became a member of the Mesa Arts Center where he found his love for the wood-fired process.

In his pursuit of wood-firing, Jeff joined the Reitz Ranch in 2018 as a studio resident, firing and building kilns for the clay center. Upon recent completion of his BFA in Ceramics, Jeff continues to develop his sculptural and functional ceramic works in his home studio in Phoenix, Arizona.

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Cornville, AZ

He studied ceramics at Arizona State in the 1970’s. After graduation, he developed his first studio in an old tobacco barn in an artist community on 300 acres in the hills of northern Tennessee. He was a dedicated student of the art form and produced functional pottery for a wide variety of markets for over 8 years.

He left the art world and joined corporate America, where he spent most of his career in the software and alternative energy businesses in senior marketing and sales positions for 25+ years. In 2012, he jumped back into ceramics with both feet, starting the Earth and Fire Ceramic Design Studio. He is also the President of the Sedona Visual Artists Coalition, which present the Sedona Open Studio Tours as well as a member of the board of the Sedona Arts Festival.

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Lubbock, TX

Dexter Woods is a first-generation ceramicist from Wylie, TX. Dexter received his BFA at Texas Tech University in 2014. Upon graduation, he moved to Phoenix, Arizona to further his art career which included developing a new body of work and some teaching experience. Dexter’s art career took a professional turn when he became involved with The Reitz Ranch Center for the Ceramic Arts project in Clarkdale, AZ.

After some time with the ranch, another opportunity presented itself in the form of a residency with the Mesa Arts Center which concluded in May 2021. Dexter is now studio manager at the LHUCA in Lubbock, TX where he continues making sculptural and functional ceramics while experimenting with different atmospheric firings (wood, salt & soda).

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Flagstaff, AZ

Jason is a studio potter, maker, and designer based in Flagstaff, AZ. Earning a B.A. in philosophy with an emphasis on sustainability and intentional communities, the mindful nature of a potter’s lifestyle, grounded in the rhythm of work cycles, natural materials, renewable resources, and community engagement was a natural path to pursue. While completing an MFA in Ceramics at West Virginia University, several apprenticeship opportunities in China and at Penland School of Crafts proved to be formative aesthetic influences evident in his ceramic art. Jason built a house and studio pottery, which includes an array of solar panels to offset 100% of the electricity used for living and studio practice, including electric kiln firings.

“After serving the University and student population for the last ten plus years, I am beyond excited to return to my studio practice full-time. I’m getting back to making pots for everyday use and special occasions, custom handmade tile, and bringing my studio practice up to speed, addressing issues of climate change and my place in it. I want to make fresh, well-crafted, guilt-free pots for my community.” - Jason Bohnert

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Show Low, AZ

Magda Gluszek is a figurative ceramic sculptor, creating her artwork from clay, as well as mixed media. She currently lives in Northeastern Arizona, where she feels deeply inspired by and connected to the surrounding high desert environment. Her sculptures illustrate visual narratives that investigate how humans construct their identities through social, cultural, and environmental influences.

Magda earned her MFA in ceramics at the University of Florida and continued on as a resident artist at the Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, and Roswell Art Center West in Roswell, Georgia. She has also been an artist in residence internationally at C.R.E.T.A. Rome, the Skopelos Foundation for the Arts in Greece, and La Fragua in Belalcazar, Spain. Magda was an Invited Artist at the 2010 Figurative Association Symposium at Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts and a 2011 NCECA Emerging Artist. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally and she has instructed workshops at several nationally recognized art centers, including Santa Fe Clay, Reitz Ranch Center for the Ceramic Arts, and Clay Arts Vegas. Magda is also full-time art faculty and gallery director at Northland Pioneer College in Show Low, Arizona.

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Andrew ‘Augusta’ Smith is a multi-medium designer and artist based in Phoenix Arizona, primarily focused on ceramic vessels. Native to Edgefield County, South Carolina, Augusta uses his background in production scale ceramics and traditional functional forms along with his engineering research discipline to produce wares ranging from precise, codependent vessels and tablewares, to brutalist expressionist sculpture, and many in-between. His current personal body of work focuses on soda-fired surfaces on porcelain functional wares.

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Kait is a ceramic artist and professor currently based in Laramie, WY. She received her BFA degree from Utah State University in 2010 with an emphasis in both ceramics and graphic design and completed her MFA degree, with an emphasis in ceramics, at the University of Missouri-Columbia in the spring of 2016.

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