Meet Carey Berry | Potter & Art Event Organizer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Carey Berry and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Carey, how does your business help the community?
In addition to running my studio, since 2015 I have served as the director of the Glens Art Walk- a celebration of the artists in the Glen Creighton neighborhood and community. The art walk was born out of conversations about creating a neighborhood art event without tying ourselves down to regular first Friday events. Our neighborhood is fortunate to have a large number of artists working out of home-based studios and has a gorgeous landscape begging for a casual stroll. The art walk was our way to showcase the concentration of artistic talent by opening art studios in our neighborhood for a self-guided walking tour.

When we launched our first art walk with 2 months of planning, 10 signs, and 200 fliers we did not know what to expect or if anyone would show up. People did show up and they loved the event and our artists came away energized and excited to do it again the next year, and the next, and on and on. Through the years we have grown from 6 open studios showcasing 9 artists in 2015 to 10 open studios with 22 artists, 2 dance groups, a food truck, musicians, and our local sustainable neighborhood organization at our event this year. We aim to be a sustainable event and every year we work to increase composting, recycling, and reducing our footprint even as the event grows.

Organizing a big event takes a lot of time and in order to manage my own life and the art walk I need to maintain boundaries, protect family time, and have time to produce my work. Perhaps the biggest lesson in running a big event is to learn to ask for help. I have found a co-director, many collaborators, and so many connections that keep growing the event and enriching the experience. As a group of friends and artists we have weathered a pandemic, family emergencies, Colorado weather, growing pains and more and we have come out of each challenge as a stronger community.

After the first art walk when we had cleaned up, packed up and all the artists headed home, I felt a longing to process the day. I called a friend from the event and we were both exhausted but elated yet sad that we weren’t all celebrating together. With the second art walk we became intentional about growing our artist community. In the early years, our artists met each other at a “preview” where we toured the studios of each open studio stop on the night before the art walk. We moved the art walk outdoors due to the pandemic and we changed the preview from a group tour to an informal gathering where we share a little about ourselves and show our work to the artist group. This evening preview allows us to meet one another and see the art before the event the next day. We continue the community building with an afterparty on the evening of the art walk. It is wonderful to share our experiences, process the day, make connections, and head home with happy hearts and full bellies. If I compare my experiences at other art festivals and sales, I have to say that the intentional community building at the Glens Art Walk is one of the magical ingredients that has built our successful event. The connections in our art group allow us to share opportunities and build friendships that go far beyond the single day of the event.

I would be remiss to neglect talking about the neighborhood community that surrounds our art group. We have a very tight knit historic neighborhood and the art walk has become one of the annual events that ties us all closer together. Neighbors gather their friends to come to the event and are ardent supporters of the art walk. This year, a lemonade stand run by enterprising neighborhood kids even delivered cold lemonade to some open studios. The art walk has become a gathering, a celebration, and more as we invite other local artists to join us and grow the event.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
Pottery has always been in my life and I was very lucky to know the pleasure of using a handmade mug early in life thanks to my Aunt Louise. When I was in college my favorite vacation was to fly to my Aunt’s house and work in her studio for a week. We made wall hangings, ornaments, earrings, lapel pins, and I even worked on throwing on the wheel. I continued my academic studies and came away with a master’s degree in biology and eventually a BSN in nursing. When I graduated from my nursing program, I took 2 weeks to work with my aunt and we made lamps, house numbers, big bowls with thrown feet, and more. It was heaven! I went to work as an oncology nurse but eventually found myself at home with two little kids and a large space that had been a pottery studio in the 1960s. I started taking pottery classes at a local art center as a way to find myself again in the midst of parenthood. I found a used wheel and we set to building a pottery studio. It was a lot of work and would not have happened without the unending support of my husband and chief builder.

The studio quickly became my sanctuary and I fell into the rhythm of making work.
After a couple of years of making pots, the Glens Art Walk was born and suddenly I was running a business and a yearly event. As the kids grew and went to preschool and elementary, so did the pottery and the Art Walk. Everything has evolved and grown and so have I. Initially, I focused on thrown forms with different glaze combinations. Currently, many of my forms are combinations of thrown and hand built work. I work with underglaze transfers made from photos I have turned into silk screens, I paint lemons, I print meadow plants and trees. I have a new love of hand building in addition to throwing. The business has grown as well and now I have a website, online sales, art walk sales, art festivals, studio classes, and a blog. Pottery has pushed me to learn the technical skills of making quality work and glaze formulation and also running a business and a large art event, setting up a tent and display, and balancing all the demands of a small business with raising kids, cooking good food, and centering myself with my work- the ball of clay that has infinite possibilities.
As I look back at how my life and work has evolved, I can see the influence of nursing and caring for bodies. Noticing the diversity of hand shapes and sizes, how we all have different ways of holding a cup and thinking of how to create work for all types of bodies. I see the benefit of studying chemistry in working with clay firing and mixing glazes. Watching the joy of my kids as they work with clay in the studio also reminds me of why I started working with clay in the first place- that tactile joy in cause and effect, in leaving a mark, in creating an object with permanence.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
When people come to visit we usually get out of town. Our preferred highway is 285 and our usual destination is Fairplay (if you start on the i70 side of the world, break off at Georgetown and take Guanella Pass over to 285). Time your drive just right and hit up The Shaggy Sheep in Grant for some great food and beverages and you might even see some big horn sheep. The drive just gets better as you head south through Kenosha Pass and the South Park Basin opens up before your eyes. Fairplay is an hour and a half from Denver and has the best small town feel. Our favorite things to do around Fairplay often involve food and hiking. Ottos (either the restaurant in Fairplay or the food truck in Alma) serves up a serious breakfast or lunch and is the only place I know of for tasty gluten free fried chicken sandwiches. Front street in Fairplay has lots of fun galleries, the historic Hand hotel, and a great distillery- The Snitching Lady. There are also great salads, sandwiches, coffee and ice cream at the Silver Scoop. If you love history or good stories find the plaques around the courthouse and on Front Street to read the story of Prunes the burro and learn about one of the best true stories of the mining days. Fairplay beach is just down the hill from Front street and is a gorgeous place to stroll around or fish if that’s your thing. Alma is a few miles up the road and there are great stores there like Big Nippers (where you can find a cberrypottery mug) and Al-mart. Kite lake is up the hill and so is Windy Ridge where there are some incredible wind sculpted bristlecone pines. There are so many places to hike and we love driving over to Como and up Boreas pass to explore the trails over there. After a full day of hiking, Milonzis is great for pizza and pasta while Salado has great southwest cuisine and makes a great date night.
The Burro Days Celebration is always the last weekend of July in Fairplay. The pack burro races and outhouse races are something you won’t want to miss. There are also art, craft, and food vendors, llamas, pack dog races, music, and a pancake breakfast- it is an unbeatable summer event and something different than your guests are likely to get anywhere else

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I get my love of working with clay from Louise Scott, my aunt and a potter since the early 1970s. I remember playing in her studio as a kid of 6 or so. The dusty smell of dry clay, the texture of canvas on a clay slab, and the cool feeling of clay in my hands while playing in her studio has left vivid memories of my first experience with pottery. It has been such a gift to learn from her decades of experience and I can’t tell you how much it means to me to be a second generation potter. Not only did Louise let me play in her studio, she encouraged me to keep learning and has been one of my biggest cheerleaders as I built my home studio and grew my business. She is a good teacher, so good she made me cut a day’s worth of pots in half just to learn to throw better. Louise still loves to talk clay and is so good at pushing me to keep growing. We often talk over FaceTime as I work. We stage kiln openings with the phone mounted over the kiln and usually have the same response to seeing the work for the first time after a glaze firing. Louise is one of my biggest supporters and I can’t imagine this journey without her.
I owe another shoutout to Sumi von Dassow for all the years I was able to learn from her functional pottery classes. I still use the skills I learned from her every day in the studio and her patient guidance was absolutely essential to my development as a potter. I was struggling to pull tall walls on my pots and Sumi noted that I was holding my breath. I still hear her kind reminder to breathe as I work today. Sumi continues to be an inspiration as she builds out her studio/gallery/home in Beulah, Colorado and I am so fortunate to call her a friend.

Website: https://cberrypottery.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cberry_pottery

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CBerryPottery/

Other: https://glensartwalk.com https://www.instagram.com/glensartwalk

Image Credits
Image credit to Rachael MacPhee for images 1, 4, 5, 7, and 8 Image credit to Carey Berry for images 2, 3, and 6.