SALISBURY — “I love making pottery.”
That is what artist Keith Meyers said he wants everyone to know and see in his work when they attend the opening reception at Pottery 101, located at 101 S. Main St., Salisbury where his work will be on display.
Scheduled for Oct. 24 from 5-7 p.m., the event will provide an opportunity for the community to meet the artist, see and learn about his work and enjoy a time of refreshments.
In information provided by Rachel Gunsch, owner of the local downtown business, Meyers grew up in Pennsylvania and attended college at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, where he received his bachelor’s degree in fine arts, with a major in ceramics and a minor in painting.
Meyers said he has always been around art as his mom was a self-taught portrait artist. He continued as he had friends who also had a love for art during his school years.
“That’s what got me into really loving fine art,” he said.
When he began college, he said he went considering doing graphic design; however, at that time, which was in around 1995, it was “pushing toward computer graphic design,” and he said he nor his professor, who was older, didn’t know lots about computers but they still had to use the computer to create their work and this “put a bad taste in my mouth,” he said.
But he continued pursuing a degree in fine arts, he noted, and with that, you had to take lots of art classes to try different mediums.
“When I found clay, I loved it,” he said.
He also had a love for painting and did lots of painting; however, he said, “when it came to having time to do anything, I always wanted to just sit at the wheel and make pots. And then that grew.”
He said he was trying to find that happy medium between being a potter and being an artist and finding his own style that he could call art and be created with it but to also be rooted in functional pottery.
Meyers said he doesn’t want to have to make a distinction between his work being functional or being art, but wants his functional pottery to be art.
“I want it to be able to be hung on the wall or sit on the mantel and then if you wanted to take it down and actually use it, you could,” he said. “That to me is probably one of the biggest reasons why I love pottery in general.”
Meyers said he has known Gunsch as she was a student of his when he taught at Pottery 101 and she was high school age at that time.
When he was first asked to be one of the featured artists at the gallery, he figured she’s a friend and she wanted to choose me, but after talking with other artists at a recent pottery show, he said, then talking to other artists at a recent pottery show in Charlotte, he said being selected means even more as he said, “it doesn’t sound like she picks just anybody so it kinda puts my head up high a little bit,” he said with a laugh.
Being able to meet members of the community and share about his work, would be good for multiple reasons he said. One is to get the knowledge of art out there noting that with computers and AI, it can be scary.
“So it’s good to still show people that we care and give them a reason for them to care as well.”
And secondly to continue to get his name out there.
Meyers said when he is at an art show, someone might visit his booth and tell him how beautiful his work is and they love what he is doing.
His response is, he said, “thank you because I love doing it. I want everybody to know that and I want them to see it in my work. It’s contagious.”
He said he never wanted to stop, but he does have a family and a day job and said it’s hard to find time to get out and actually make pots but when he does, he could spend hours or days doing so and if he had the time could easily go through hundreds of clay in a weekend.
