Yve Holtzclaw
Tangled
Stoneware, glaze, slip thread, 8x6x6"
100% donation by artist

Yve is a genderqueer artist and educator originally from Atlanta, GA. Since graduating from Massachusetts College of Art and Design with their BFA in ceramics and art history in 2020, they have been awarded the Donis. A. Dondis travel grant, completed a residency in ceramics at the Kalamazoo Institute of Art, and organized shows both locally and nationally. Their work focuses on the intersection of the metaphysical and the tender through immersive and nostalgic installations of anthropomorphized climate, animals, and architecture. Yve is currently a long term resident at the Clay Studio of Missoula

Courtney Murphy
Vase
Coil built earthenware, 15x10x10"
100% donation by artist

Courtney Murphy began working in clay while living in Brooklyn, NY. After several years of working for potters around the city, she moved to Portland, OR and received a post-baccalaureate in ceramics from the Oregon College of Art and Craft. Courtney moved to Montana in the summer of 2009 for a ceramic residency at the Archie Bray Foundation. She was a resident at the Clay Studio of Missoula from 2012-2014, and currently serves on the board of directors.

Elisha Harteis
Fluffle
Porcelain and underglaze. Large bunny: 18x4.5x2.5 ; Medium bunny: 10.5x4.5x2 ; Small bunny: 8x4.5x2
100% donation by artist

Elisha is a ceramic artist living in Missoula, MT. She received her BFA in Ceramics from the University of Montana and has continued her education by completing a short term residency at Red Lodge Clay Center, a studio assistantship at the Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts, and a short-term and long-term residency at the Clay Studio of Missoula. She loves working with kids and sharing her passion with ceramics by teaching in after-school programs and other art programs in Missoula.

Tara Wilson
Basket
Woodfired Stoneware, 18"x9.5'"x9.5"

Tara Wilson was captivated by the woodfiring process during her undergraduate studies at the University of Tennessee. Armed with an MFA from the University of Florida she ventured westward for a transformative residency at The Archie Bray Foundation. Montana's rugged beauty stole Tara's heart and in 2008 she planted roots and set up her studio near Helena. She has shared her expertise through lectures and workshops throughout the United States and her work has been exhibited internationally. She facilitated the Cultural Confluence Woodfire Symposium in 2018 and serves as a founding host of The Montana Clay Tour. When not in the studio, Tara can be found roaming the hills on her mountain bike.

Richard Notkin
Those Who Do Not Learn #5
Ceramic, sawdust-fired, copper painted surface 2.75x7x1.25"
100% donation by artist

Richard Notkin's teapots, ceramic sculptures and tile murals are stages for social/political commentary. He has had 50 one-person exhibitions, taught workshops and lectured at over 350 venues worldwide, and is in more than 80 museum collections internationally. Awards include three Fellowships from the NEA, grants from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation and United States Artists Foundation. Notkin was featured in the premier "Craft in America" episode on PBS and elected a Fellow of the American Craft Council in 2008. He received the Honorary Membership Award from NCECA in 2014 and the inaugural Lifetime Achievement Award from the Virginia A. Groot Foundation in 2025.

Heather Lepp
Tray
Handbuilt soda fired earthenware, 25.75x8x2"
100% donation by artist

Heather is an artist and educator originally from Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. She received her BFA from the University of Manitoba, and her MFA from West Virginia University, and has apprenticed with four professional potters. She has been an artist in residence at Medalta (2019) and Red Lodge Clay Center (Summer 2023) and was awarded the Marilyn Levitt Prize in Functional Ceramics from the Manitoba Arts Council. She is inspired to create pottery that fits a need in her daily life with an emphasis equally placed on beauty and practicality. Heather is currently a long term resident at the Clay Studio of Missoula

Casey Zablocki
Woodfired Platter
Woodfired ceramic, 17x17x3.25"
100% donation by artist

Casey Zablocki was born and raised in the Upper Peninsula. He received his BFA from Finlandia University and studied ceramic design in Kuopio, Finland. He has studied as an apprentice to Peter Callas and designer/artist Hun-Chung Lee. He did post baccalaureate studies at Montana State University for one year. Casey was the Woodfire resident at the Clay Studio of Missoula from 2013-2015, and currently maintains an active studio practice in Missoula.

Warren MacKenzie
Platter
Stoneware, 18"diameter, 2" high

This piece was originally donated by Julia Galloway in 2019 and generously donated back to CSoM by 2019 purchaser Robbie Mason Estimated retail: $1200

Warren MacKenzie (1924 - 2018) is recognized as a true master of 20th Century ceramic art. Through his traditional wheel-thrown vessels, Mr. MacKenzie's pottery embodies strong influences from Bernard Leach and Shoji Hamada. His work consistently represents the confidence of where the potter's hand is felt and touched through the utilitarian pots that are produced for use in everyday life.
Among other numerous awards, Warren MacKenzie was named a Regent's Professor, a Fellow of the International Academy of Ceramics, and was the first to receive the Minnesota Governor's Award in Crafts in 1986. In 1997, he received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Minnesota Crafts Council and in 1998 was honored with the Gold Medal from the American Crafts Council. His work is represented in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York; the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.; The National Folk Art Museum in Tokyo, Japan; the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, England; Contemporary American Crafts Museum in New York; Bernard Leach Study Collection in Bath, England, the Minnesota Museum of American Art in St. Paul; the Weisman Art Museum and the Minneapolis Institute of Arts in Minneapolis.

Susan Carlson
House in Order
Porcelain, underglaze, glaze, 15"x11"
100% donation by artist

Susan Carlson is a local Missoula artist who is a member, student and studio artist at the Clay Studio of Missoula. She attended Gonzaga University and the University of Montana where she earned a BFA.

Ceramic Cups by Five Montana Artists
Adrian Arleo, Josh DeWeese, Julia Galloway, Steve Young Lee, and Beth Lo

Donated by Jason Neal of Radius Gallery for the Potsketch 2026 Auction

Arleo Cup -2.75x3" ; DeWeese Mug-3.5x4x5" ; Galloway Cup -4x3" ; Lee Cup -3.25x3.25" ; Lo Cup: 3x3"

George McCauley
Covered Jar
Thrown earthenware, glaze, underglaze, 14"x12.5"x12.5"
60% donation by artist

George Metropoulos McCauley, a Greek/American potter, has had 30 solo shows and has been included in 300 exhibitions. He has taught and conducted workshops internationally. He has been the recipient of numerous awards and grants and his pottery and sculpture are included in international collections in 12 countries and multiple publications. McCauley continues to have a busy workshop and exhibition schedule and still finds time to produce his own local television show," George's House of Interesting Things" on HCTV, and "GHOC Wednesday Night Videos on the internet. He has 2 films to his credit, "Archie C. Bray, Life at the Brickyard" 2008 and "Ron Meyers and the Usual Suspects" 2013. Additionally McCauley has been working with the low income and disabled community for 40 years. He maintains a studio at his home in Helena, Montana where he makes colorful earthenware pots, high temperature wood firing, earthenware wood firing and narrative sculpture. Along the way he has worked as a chef in a Greek restaurant, full-time cowboy/horse trainer, concrete inspector, aluminum siding salesman, western catalog model, lifeguard and carpenter.

Brooke Armstrong
Cloud Cluster 3
Porcelain, wild clay inclusions, mason stains, glaze, wire, thread, recycled pillowcases, steel, wood and paint, 22x35x2", 2025
75% donation by artist

Brooke Armstrong is a ceramic artist interested in creating sculptural forms from processes tied to traditional craft. Her work uses thousands of hand made parts, creating repetitive texture interacting viscerally with our bodies. Brooke grew up in a rural mountain town in the Adirondack Park in New York State. She received a BA in Communication with a minor in Art from SUNY Potsdam, a ceramics Post-Baccalaureate from the University of Colorado, and her MFA from The University of Montana. She has attended residencies at The Mendocino Art Center in Mendocino, CA and The Red Lodge Clay Studio in Red Lodge, MT. She has exhibited across the US including the American Museum of Ceramic Art in California, The Houston Center of Contemporary Craft and The DeLand Art Museum in Florida. She is currently an Assistant Professor at The University of Texas in San Antonio.

Adrian Arleo
Goat Vase, Tulipiere
Porcelain, cast, hand built, 9.25x9x5", 2025
100% donation by artist

Adrian Arleo is a ceramic sculptor living outside Missoula, Montana. She studied Art and Anthropology at Pitzer College (B.A. 1983) and received her M.F.A. in ceramics from Rhode Island School of Design in 1986. Arleo was an Artist in Residence at Oregon College of Art and Craft in 1986-87, and at Sitka Center for Art and Ecology in 1987-88. For nearly thirty years, Arleo has focused her work on the human figure, often combining it with animal imagery, and other elements of the natural world. Some works allude to a relationship of understanding or connection between the human and animal realms. In others, human figures possess animal features in a way that reveals something hidden about the character or primal nature of the human.

Jack Schwarze
Basin
Woodfired Stoneware, 9"x 22"x22'"
100% donation by artist

Jack Schwarze is a Montana raised artist currently working and living in Missoula. He received his BFA from Montana State University in his hometown of Bozeman in 2019. Jack went on to complete artist residencies at Cobb Mountain Art and Ecology and Red Lodge Clay Center. Most recently he has worked as a studio assistant for Casey Zablocki and is currently the Wood Fire Resident Artist at the Clay Studio of Missoula.

Renee Brown
Verdite, Rose Quartz and Pepper Mica
Ceramic, multimedia, 7"x7"x10"
100% donation by artist

Growing up in Georgia, Renée spent summer days playing in the creek bed next to her home. Clay has always been under her nails.

In 2002 Brown left the Interior design field to pursue her MFA in Ceramics at the University of North Texas. Upon receiving her degree, she completed several artist residencies in Montana including: ​The Archie Bray Foundation, Red Lodge Clay Center, and The Clay Studio of Missoula. Renée now maintains an independent studio in Missoula, Montana.

Julia Galloway
Urn for the Minnesota Dwarf Trout Lily
Carved Porcelain, 7x8x11"
100% donation by artist

In addition, Julia Galloway will send 10% of what this urn sells for to a land trust (https://theconservationfoundation.org/) that is close to the silica mine (https://www.ussilica.com/locations/ottawa-il) in La Salle Illinois.

Julia Galloway is a Regents professor at the University of Montana and maintains an active studio practice here in Missoula. She is currently 5 years into an 8 year project, carving an urn for each endangered Species in the United States. Though trained as a traditional functional pottery, through using metaphor and the powerful visual impact of large scale art installation, Julia hopes to bring attention and education to the relationship between people and the natural world. Julia's artwork is in more than 25 museums, and she was named artist of the year in 2023 by the Ceramics Arts Network.

Burial urns are an iconic form used by almost all cultures going back thousands of years. The shape and carving of this urn are rooted in Asian Ceramics, specifically the Sung Dynasty, and the surface treatment and color is reminiscent of early Edgewood ceramics. Julia is combining a powerful cultural iconic shape, with two of the most influential historical ceramics traditions to address her concern for the condition of and our relations to the natural world.

Cathy Weber
4 Season Birds with Night Sky
Found wood, carved cone 6 porcelain, 16 x24x6"
75% donation by artist

Cathy Weber grew up in the Midwestern US, studied at the Herron School of Art and Indiana University, and completed a formal painting apprenticeship in Mexico City. In 1981 she moved to Montana, where she maintains a studio in historic downtown Dillon. Skilled in a variety of media, Weber's work is motivated by an increasing sense of urgency to make things of beauty in response to war, injustice, greed and violence. Weber finds comfort and hope in the process of creating beautiful images of common objects.

Casey Burton
Bucket
Soda fired ceramic, 17"x20"x20"
100% donation by artist

Casey Burton was born and raised on Chicago's South Side and earned a BFA in ceramics from the University of Iowa in 2019, followed by post-baccalaureate study at the University of Kansas and an artist residency at Cobb Mountain Art & Ecology Project in Northern California, experiences that deepened her connection to body and land. She received her MFA from Penn State University in 2024 and was an adjunct professor at Saint Xavier University in Chicago. Casey is currently an artist-in-residence at the Clay Studio of Missoula.

3 Cups
A collaborative work by Beth Lo and Steven Young Lee
Porcelain, 3.5x3.5x3.5" per cup
75% donation by artists

Steven Young Lee is a contemporary artist living in Helena, Montana. He was the Director of the Archie Bray Foundation for the Ceramic Arts for 16 years where he maintained an active studio practice along with orchestrating an organization devoted to excellence in ceramics. In 2004-05, he lectured and taught at numerous universities throughout China as part of a cultural and educational exchange in Jingdezhen, Shanghai and Beijing and spent two months in Seoul, South Korea studying ceramic tradition and history. In 2005-6 he was a visiting professor at Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design in Vancouver, B.C. Lee earned his BFA and MFA in Ceramics from Alfred University.

Beth Lo is a ceramic artist and retired professor from the School of Art of the University of Montana. She has exhibited her work internationally and has received numerous awards for her work including the USA Fellowship and a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship. Beth and her sister, author Ginnie Lo, have collaborated on two children's picture books, Auntie Yang's Great Soybean Picnic (2012) and Mahjong All Day Long which won the 2005 Marion Vannett Ridgeway Award. She has also collaborated with her mother, Chinese brush painter, Kiahsuang Shen Lo. Beth is also active as a bass player and vocalist for several musical ensembles including The Big Sky Mudflaps and Salsa Loca. The Big Sky Mudflaps is a swing and jazz ensemble that has played on the NBC Today Show and the Kool Jazz Festival among other national venues.

Karen Van Galder
Earth and Sky
Reduction fired ceramic, 15x15x8"
100% donation by artist

Having lived in many places, I have never encountered such a dynamic and inspiring community of artists, nor such a rich variety of firing techniques to explore as there are in Missoula. My recent body of work delves into the wildlife of the Northwest and the profound connection that native cultures have with the land and its creatures. Through sculpting, I seek to evoke a sense of wisdom, resilience, and quiet strength-especially in older beings whose stories are etched into their forms. My goal is to create pieces that not only capture a viewer's interest but also invite them to reflect on the depth and spirit of the subject. Each sculpture is a narrative, a moment suspended in time that speaks to the enduring relationship between nature and humanity.

Phil Mahn & Eva Champagne
Large Jar
Ceramic, 25x21x21"

This work was originally made for the 2016 Potsketch auction and recently donated from Mo Gary's collection to the Clay Studio of Missoula for the Potsketch 2026 Auction.

Philip Mahn was born and raised in Great Falls and currently lives near Missoula. His development as a potter has been through independent study, mentoring, and a variety of community ceramic studios like the Paris Gibson Square, The Clay Studio of Missoula, University of Montana, and the Archie Bray Foundation. His work is a collaboration of the intuitive interaction with clay and the embracement of the firing processes that make it uniquely ceramic.

Eva Champagne is an American ceramic artist and educator, raised in the great cultural melting pot of Hong Kong. She has taught in both university and workshop settings in the US and abroad, focusing on such topics as soda firing, soda kiln building, ceramic surface techniques for all temperatures and firings, wheel throwing, and a wide variety of hand building methods. Her work and writing have been featured in Ceramics Monthly and Pottery Making Illustrated, among other publications. Eva's ceramic work is exhibited in the US and internationally. She received her B.A. in Studio Art from Humboldt State University, completed Post-Baccalaureate study at the University of Florida, and earned her M.F.A. in Ceramics from the University of Montana-Missoula. Eva has traveled extensively for artist residencies including AIR Vallauris in France, Guldagergaard International Ceramic Research Center in Denmark, Watershed Center for Ceramic Arts in Maine, Red Lodge Clay Center and The Clay Studio of Missoula in Montana, and Gaya Ceramic Art Center in Bali, Indonesia. She returned to Gaya Ceramic Arts Center twice after her residency to lead workshops, before joining to serve as Managing Director for five and a half years. Recently, she returned to western Montana and continues her studio practice.

Scott Ross
Set of 3 Bowls
Woodfired stoneware, natural ash glaze 3.5x7.5x6"
100% donation by artist

Scott Ross was born and raised in Union Lake, MI. and earned BA (1997) degrees in Ceramics and Creative Writing from Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, FL. He has earned his MFA (2012) in Sculpture from Southern Illinois University Edwardsville (SIUE). Since 1997, he has also been building and firing wood-kilns at his home studio in Union Lake, MI.

Sue Tirrell
Blue Chicken Pitcher
Wheel thrown porcelain with underglaze sgraffito design, 7.5x6x4.5"
100% donation by artist

Born and raised in Red Lodge, Montana, Sue Tirrell received an AA from Cottey College in Nevada, MO in 1995 and a BFA from the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University in 1997. Her work draws inspiration from her experiences living in Montana and the West, her fascination with animals and interest in folk art, illustrated fairy tales and vintage kitsch. Sue's work has been exhibited widely in the US, Canada and Australia and she has taught ceramics and multi-media workshops across the country from college classrooms to one-room schoolhouses. Sue lives and works north of Yellowstone National Park, in Montana's Paradise Valley.

I came to clay as a college freshman, intent on studying Graphic Design and was won over by the prospect of activating sculptural and functional objects with narrative surface design. My pots employ mythic animal imagery, crisp design and riotous color to bring playfulness, character and storytelling to daily kitchen rituals and special occasions.

Crista Ann Ames
Halcyon
Ceramic stoneware w/ underglaze + oxide wash, 7x9.5x6"
100% donation by artist

Crista Ann Ames is a studio artist and teaching artist living in Ellensburg, Washington. Raised on a small hobby farm, she often draws on her own experiences to explore pastoral life, animal husbandry, women's craft and fertility.

Crista received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Ceramics with a minor in Art History and Disability Studies from Washington State University. She went on to attend Utah State University for Post Baccalaureate studies in Ceramics. While receiving her Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Montana she began studying dance and movement to help inform the way she sculpts the figure.

Richard Smith
Epiphany (Out of Your Mind)
Gas and Wood Fired Stoneware,10x13x5 inches
100% donation by artist

I am a ceramic artist exploring the methodology and aesthetic of wood and soda fired ceramics. Through abstraction of objects and shapes, I convey a vague sense of visual familiarity, while rejecting traditional depictions of these forms. My intent is to build a sculptural form that will initially grab the viewer's attention, followed by a more detailed inspection of the surface color, crackage and texture. My goal is to build contemporary sculpture that lends itself to this fascinating niche expression.

Ethan Arias
Rusted Water Jar
Wheel thrown with coils, stoneware, soda fired, 10x8.25x17.25"
100% donation by artist

Ethan, a Coral Springs, Florida native, started studying ceramics in 2021 at the University of North Florida. He received his Bachelor of Arts in Engineering Studies with a focus in Fine Arts Materials and minors in Marketing and Ceramics in May of 2024. While in his undergraduate studies he earned two research grants to enhance his study of ceramics materials. As an artist, Ethan is focused on wheel-thrown, functional ceramics that are fired in atmospheric kilns. Ethan is currently a long term resident at the Clay Studio of Missoula