Lara OKeefe

From an early age handmade was the language I understood best. It was familiar and the focal point of my family life and surroundings. My mother was the maker of beautiful things. She worked in stained glass, photography, quilting, and even stone masonry.. As a child living for a time in the American Southwest, my home was made of clay and straw adobe bricks and my nearest neighbors were Pueblo Indians, many of them skilled potters. Family pilgrimages South introduced me to the whimsical folk pottery of Mexico. Naturally, I found clay as a young adult and was fortunate to have had formative rich apprenticeships with gifted teachers. Time spent at these North Carolina- based potteries over the span of almost a decade provided me with a catalogue of forms to reference and endlessly reinvent. I see my pots as existing in a continuum of tradition. They flow from me but do not belong to me. I hope that the user of my pots can feel that same connection to the past and hopefully be drawn more into the present moment over a shared cup of tea or meal with a friend or loved one.