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Aaron Sober

This ceramic artist marries traditional pottery forms and brushwork to create edgy, modern clay pieces intended for use. The decoration and warm glazes of his salt-fired work tempt both the eye and the hand.

Aaron earned a BA in ceramics from Macalester College in St. Paul then worked as a production potter and clay instructor while producing his own studio work. He was a fellow at the Northern Clay Center in Minneapolis and at the Penland School of Crafts in North Carolina and has participated in national craft fairs including the Uptown Art Fair in Minneapolis, the American Craft Council show in St. Paul, Art Fair on the Square in Madison, WI and Crafts at Lincoln Center in New York City. Aaron recently moved his studio from Minnesota to mid-coast Maine and is currently experimenting with the way his familiar glazing materials behave in a new climate.

The artist states, “Like a pair of work boots, my pots are made to be durable and masculine, but also not without grace. As I strive to infuse functional forms with these qualities, some level of humor is communicated in their surface decoration: strange animals and thorny plants abound, bucktooth rabbits sit on the sides of teapots, complex designs wrap around jars. By working with images from nature that are sometimes disconcerting, amusing, or even peaceful, my pottery communicates something of both the beauty, patterns, and truth of the natural world.

Like all crafters, the process of making work is one that continues to satisfy, humble, and challenge. This relationship to a material undeniably shows through in every piece. As I go through a production cycle, I attempt to handle the clay in a direct, confident, and un-fussed manner. In doing so, it is my hope that the work has a strong and uncomplicated presence.”