Rebecca Lowery

A former budding psychologist, potter Rebecca Lowery left high school in Dalton, Georgia, for Berea College in Kentucky, a non-tuition school where every student works for the college to offset costs.

“On the application to Berea, there are questions asking about skill sets. I proudly checked ‘Yes’ to pottery after one successful high school art class experience, and lo and behold, I was placed in the apprenticeship pottery program,” she says.

From her first weeks as a college freshman, Rebecca learned to make pottery for sale.

“I had intended to become a psychologist, but after a year in the apprenticeship program, I made my decision to pursue art as my career,” she says. That was more than 25 years ago.

Rebecca moved to Bloomington and joined its Local Clay Potters Guild, meeting and working alongside many talented potters, including Indiana Artisans Jan Arbogast and Kris Busch.

Today, she creates whimsical functional pottery through the use of a potter’s wheel, simple tools and her hands. A full-time clay artist, Rebecca says she creates pottery to be used, and also to be loved.

“I want my patrons to have a direct connection with the work they buy,” she says. “I often say I want the pottery to feel like it’s going to get up and walk away, which inevitably causes patrons to smile or even laugh out loud.”

The light-heartedness of her designs shows how much Rebecca enjoys her work.

“I love what I do,” she says, “and I hope to be able to do it for a long time. After 25 years, I have developed my own style and glazes that are unique to me. I instill a bit of my own personality into each piece, and what I love about making my work is the fun of it all.”