About the Instructor: Sara Patterson 
Born and raised on a dairy farm in southwestern Pennsylvania, Sara Patterson is a ceramic artist living in Bethel, NY.  

Her journey in clay began in New York City where, with a degree in Art History, she worked for the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It was during an after work pottery class that she discovered her passion for clay. Throwing her first crooked little bowls full of promise, Sara found endless inspiration in the museum’s vast ceramic collections as well as the city’s rich clay culture. A self-directed clay education was built around New York’s many clay studios and visiting artists, as well as the nearby salt and wood kilns of Mikhail Zakin, the Peter’s Valley Craft Center, and Susan Beecher. 

The atmospheric surfaces of salt and wood firing give voice to the visual memories of the family farm- the fresh greens of spring fields; wooden barns and metal roofs richly textured by years of paint and weather; the late summer garden ripening red and orange against the rusty patina of an old plow. These are the images and memories that feed Sara’s work.

Sara recently retired as owner/director of Earthworks NYC, a community studio on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, where she taught for more than 20 years.  She fires a salt kiln in Bethel, NY where she lives and gardens with her husband.