Potter In The Wild: Meredith Skyer

POTTER IN THE WILD: MEREDITH SKYER

Learning that practically everyone has limiting beliefs has helped me to not waste my time dwelling on those thoughts.

Clay and I go way back, from years of my youth spent playing with polymer, to majoring in ceramics in college and going on to earn a masters in art education. I love making art and adore sharing that love with others through teaching. 
I specialize in making imaginative monsters, robots, and whimsical animal pottery, and draw a lot of inspiration from my flock of 24 chickens. I sell most of my pottery to fellow backyard chicken keepers via one of my websites, Backyard Chicken Project.

My artistic interests also extend beyond clay, with a great love for ink, watercolor, and fiber arts. For the past dozen years, I've worked as a K-12 art teacher in Western New York. I've also extended my reach by sharing art education videos with a global audience through digital platforms like YouTube and Skillshare. 
I started on a new chapter in October 2022, relocating to Knoxville alongside my husband and toddler son. I hope to integrate into the vibrant and welcoming art community that Knoxville has to offer, where I look forward to contributing my passion, knowledge, and creativity to this awesome clay community. I do hope to teach again in the future here in Knoxville, though for now I'm enjoying making and sharing works online.

Listening to: The audiobook Essentialism

Favorite life hack: Get your workouts over and done with early in the morning so you don’t have to convince yourself to do it all day.

Pets: A chocolate lab, a feisty cat, and 24 chickens

Favorite Quote:

“Life’s like a movie, write your own ending. Keep believing, keep pretending.”

Jim Henson

What in your life do you find exciting at the moment? Becoming a mom has been the most eye opening and the most fun experience of my life. Seeing the world through my son’s eyes really makes me appreciate everything so much more. Being creative with him, especially with clay and Playdoh is the best. He comes up with ideas, I help him make them, and we have a blast. Then after he goes to bed, I expand on those ideas in my pottery studio. He’s my biggest inspiration.

What are your limiting beliefs?
I’m constantly working on overcoming and pushing past this feeling and belief that the work I’m doing isn’t good enough, because someone out there is doing it better than me. It’s one of the toughest parts of being an artist. Learning that practically everyone has limiting beliefs has helped me to not waste my time dwelling on those thoughts. If I give into that kind of thinking, how can I ever improve my skills and develop my style? How can I teach art to others if I don’t believe in my own abilities? Yes, there will always ALWAYS be people out there who are more skilled and talented than I am, and it just doesn’t matter. Who cares? Why should that stop me from having fun with art and showing others how to do the same?

What emotion most often inspires your work? Joy, but also equally, depression. It’s funny, because a lot of people will view my work and say something to the effect of: “You must have a lot of fun in the studio.” And while it’s true, that yes I do have fun, my work is often not coming from a place of joy, but rather an effort to bring joy to myself and others. I’ve struggled with depression for all of my adult life, and one of the ways that I cope is to create art that brings me joy. Monsters with giant goofy smiles, ceramic robots, little woodland critters. My art is full of humor and cheer, and it’s mostly made that way to inspire those feelings in myself and others.

What has being a potter meant for you?
My life and career as a potter and ceramic artist has changed and morphed so many times over the years. I’ve always loved clay, but didn’t start with ceramic art until college. When I graduated, I worked as a weekend potter in a living history museum, teaching about the history of pottery to people who came to visit, and making piles of pottery on an ancient kick wheel.

I was the only woman in the village who was allowed to wear pants because a dress could get caught in the wheel and torn off! It was an interesting summer for sure. I also started teaching at a local ceramic studio, which pushed me to get a degree in art education. After I received my masters and teaching certificate, I taught art to students in grades Kindergartenthrough 12th grade. I taught in many different school districts and classrooms for 13 years. All the while, I was making and selling my own pottery and ceramic art.

I sold my work on Etsy and at local art and craft fairs. I loved the festival scene, but it was also overwhelming and difficult. After years of carting heavy ceramics, tents, and tables around, I’ve moved to fully online sales. These days, I’m mostly a stay at home mom, I teach art on Youtube, and make ceramic art when I can find the time. I’m working on setting up private art and clay lessons for the kids and adults in my community, as they don’t have art classes in school and hey, everyone needs more art in their life!

I’ve worked in pottery in so many different ways, all of them rewarding and challenging in their own respects. When it comes down to it, the most important goal is to do what I can to make people happy with my art and teaching. And that includes myself. If what I’m doing isn’t making me happy, something needs to change. I want my fun and whimsical art to bring smiles to people’s faces. I want my students to feel pride and excitement at their own capabilities. I love what I do, and hope I can continue to reach more and more people with my art and teaching.

What advice would you give your younger self? Oh gosh. I love school and wish I could have taken a deep dive into ceramics before I started my family and had a mortgage. It’s so hard to go back to school when your time and energy is so limited. I’ve learned all I can about ceramics and I’m still learning every day, but if I could go back, I’d tell myself to get this degree that would have given me the true expertise, experience, and education that I need to reach all my goals. I wish I had just gone for my MFA in ceramics when I had the chance, the time, the energy.

Tell us about personal goals / what do you dream of? I’m a super aspirational person with too many dreams and not enough time. But I’ll just tell you about two of them here.
Goal 1:I want to get back into teaching. I left my art teaching career when we moved to Tennessee and had our baby. I knew I wanted to stay at home with him while he was little. But I miss teaching very much. I’m currently teaching beginner art on Youtube, and working toward establishing low-cost, in-person art classes for the people in my community. I’m also working on writing a book about clay for kids. I can still teach and be a stay at home mom, but it will look different than it used to, and that’s okay!

Goal 2: I keep coming back to this idea that I can’t let go of. I want to start a non-profit that somehow connects pottery and ceramic art with animal rescue. It’s just a half baked idea right now, but I think it would be amazing to use pottery to help animal shelters, zoos, and animal rescue organizations bring in funds. I know a lot of potters and artists who make pieces that that aren’t absolutely perfect, but they aren’t worthy of the trash can either. My dream is to create a website or shop where these pieces go up for sale. They find a new home and bring someone joy, and the money for the sale goes to an animal rescue.Everyone wins!

The potter doesn’t have to add their pot to the landfill, the buyer gets an awesome pot at a discounted price, and animals get a new lease on life. That’s my big idea and movement right now, I just need to find a way (and some time) to make it happen!

What advice do you have for other potters and artists? A few years ago, I read the Lisa Congdon book, Art Inc, and one of the artists she interviewed for it said it was important to “make piles of art” and it has always stuck with me, and been one of the most helpful pieces of advice in my own art career. Your voice and your uniqueness will naturally happen when you make piles of art, especially in pottery. Try not to get too attached to one piece, and don’t let mistakes stop you. Keep pushing forward, keep creating, and never stop playing and experimenting. It’s so easy to get stuck in one way of doing things, but half the fun is doing something different and new. Always ask yourself “what if? What if I did this? What would happen?” This is the kind of playful attitude that brings about true creativity.

Do you have a recipe that you would like to share?

There’s no story behind these cookies other than I set out to make an amazing chocolate chip cookie recipe and it just kind of evolved from a lot of trial and error and a deep love of coffee!