When walking the shores of Kachemak Bay, treasures fill my family’s pockets and make the journey home.  These sea objects remind me of the time spent in nature, the laughter of my children playing, and a feeling of calm in the fresh salt air.  These small forms inspire me to take the time to slow down and observe their delicacy. 

 

Working with clay, holistically roots me to my ancestors, humanity, nature, and a larger reality. As an artist my role is to access, evoke, and explore the deeper levels of self and connect it to nature and spirituality. My work is an invitation to utilize and reflect on purposeful beauty in everyday life. 

 

I am intrigued by the unadulterated Alaskan landscape and continually inspired by the objects created by nature.  My work utilizes   organic movement and texture repetitively across the forms.  I employ multiple clay building techniques to create functional pottery.  At times I will work with handmade molds, draping large slabs of porcelain over them.  At others times the potter’s wheel is employed to throw stoneware clay.  This work is often altered, carved, or faceted past the wheel.  I work in series and reduction fire my work in a gas kiln to cone 10. 

 

Maygen Lotscher has been a ceramicist since 1993. She is the recipient of a Rasmuson Arts Educator grant, the Stranded Artist grant, a full scholarship as a MFA graduate teaching assistant, and has exhibited her works throughout Alaska. She was born in 1975 in Royal Oak, Michigan. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Ceramics from Northern Michigan University and a Masters of Education from the University of Alaska.  An art educator for over a decade, Maygen has taught ceramics at Homer High School and the University of Alaska’s Kachemak Bay Campus.