BIO

Maria Chambers Hutchins is a potter working out of her home studio in Mount Desert, Maine. She makes functional wheel-thrown stoneware pots, many of which are faceted and altered to non-round forms. A nomad at heart, Maria has worked and taught in community studios across the country but is now happily putting down roots with her family on MDI.

Maria fell in love with clay during a summer workshop when she was nine years old. Though she took one college course in hand-built ceramics, the wheel class was always full, so she looked for classes off campus. This led her, fortuitously, to the basement of an art supply store in Olympia, WA where the ceramics teacher happened to be Sequoia Miller. Maria continued to take classes from Sequoia throughout college, but it was several years later that he asked her to be his studio assistant. This is where the bulk of her learning occurred.

As Sequoia’s assistant, Maria quickly learned the ins & out of running a successful studio, from mixing glazes to firing kilns to shipping pots. But more importantly, she witnessed Sequoia’s approach to studio practice and the creative process. It was from him that she learned a new intentionality about her work, and ultimately, what made a pot a “Maria pot”.

ARTIST AND MOTHER

In September 2017, Maria became a mother. Aside from the many obvious ways that this changes a life and studio practice, she is finding that more subtle aspects of identity as a maker also come into play. As a potter, balance is always key - in the pots as well as in studio life. In early motherhood, new challenges to balance arose continually and finding time to be in the studio was like a dance. Connecting with fellow mama artists and makers has been both supportive and exciting. Maria is building community now in Maine as she has before in CA, CO, VT, NH and WA and is deeply grateful for the fabric of community that stretches coast to coast, especially as she returns to her New England roots.