La Mano Pottery

Kira, Matias & Gil Santiago

The work of Kira, Matias and Gil Santiago will be featured in the La Mano gallery from April 5–April 30. Please join us on Saturday, April 9, from 6–9pm for the artists' reception.

Kira Santiago has been “playing” with clay for years; first with her potter aunt Almut at the Cold River Pottery and then at LaMano Pottery.  She has published an artist journal on Clay.  Kira has won numerous City, Regional and National Awards for photography, painting, drawing, sculpture and ceramics.  She is currently attending the Beacon High School.  Her other interests include learning ASL and becoming a certified interpreter by the time she graduates high school; and the flying trapeze, where her goal is to be their first female catcher at trapeze school NY (TSNY).

Matias Santiago has also been “playing” with clay for a number of years; both at his aunt’s pottery and at LaMano.  He has won Regional and National Awards for both photography and ceramics.  In September he’ll be starting high school at High School for Math, Science & Engineering at City College.  His interests are computer, Warhammer, and reading just about anything he can get his hands on.

Gil Santiago has also “played” on and off with clay for years.  Only recently getting back into it while taking classes with his children at LaMano pottery.  He has a degree in Industrial Design from Pratt Institute, and his Masters in Architecture from Columbia University; and is currently an instructor at Pratt Institute

All of our feelings about clay are well described by this quote from Kira’s book Clay and Artist Journal:

Clay is a beautiful mud, before the fire’s touch turns it into stone.  You can make it dance and spin, telling it what you want from it with your hands.  When you do pottery for years, your hands pretty much have their own brains for doing the same technique over and over again.  Clay is not patient of the wheel, you can only use it once and then it’s over.  It becomes something for the fire or something for the clay bin.  On the wheel, the clay is forever moving each time your skin touches it.  It’s like you are giving the clay a massage and the clay is massaging your hands as you both share space and time on the Wheel. With hand building the clay is much more patient than with the wheel.  It is still on your skin as you touch it.  When I have finished a shape on the wheel or a piece by hand, I stop to look at it.  Sometimes, when I make a piece, I would be so focused on the hard pars that I might forget an eye, nose, or some other detail that would bring the clay to life.  If it looks good, I sometimes feel like a goddess.

Julie Schulweis Hadley’s bowls and other work will be featured in the gallery throughout March. Please join us for the closing reception on Saturday April 2, 6–9pm.

Julie's website »

Artist’s Statement
Being an owner, operator, and teacher at La Mano Pottery for over ten years has provided me with an environment more conducive to creating art than when I was in fine art school for painting. I look forward to the moments that I spend at the studio, able to immerse myself in the medium of clay, as well as the carving and decorating of it. It transports me to other places and provides the space and time for me to let down my guard and take a breath.

All of my pottery is about letting go, loosening up, relaxing, finding, refining and redefining my inner self. As an adult, I feel my childhood was too short, went by too quickly—and I became increasingly tight with my art. At the beginning, I was very concerned with making the perfect round bowl. Now, after twelve years of potting, I am finally able to make the perfect bowl that is not perfectly round, know when it is finished, and know that less is more.

Danica Holoviak's work will be on display in our gallery throughout the month of Februrary, with a reception on Saturday February 12th, 7-9pm.

Artist's Statement

I've been realizing lately that I've been working with my hands creatively my entire life, but I've kept each medium separate -- clay, fiber, paper, fabric.  As I thought about what to create for this exhibit, the idea that kept sticking in my head was to find a way to integrate everything.  I wanted to challenge myself to make something different, fun, thought provoking.

The other idea that's been rattling around in my head is more of a concept: Where do thoughts come from?  If they were physical what form would they take?  Thought bubbles: two dimensional, three dimensional, flimsy and thin, solid, ceramic...

Peggy Clarke's pottery is in the gallery for the month of January. Peggy, as many of you know, is one of the three owners of La Mano. She is highly skilled and hands-on in the many facets of the business and is teaching a class at the studio this semester.

She uses many techniques and different types of firings with her pottery and shows her work upstate, as well as in NYC. We hope you have a chance to stop by and view her fish-themed wall hanging on the wall at the entrance to the studio. The pottery was raku-fired and is quite exquisite.