2023 Recipient of Jackie Abrams Legacy Scholarship

My name is Ellie Duncan, I am an artist and urban farmer living in Bellingham Washington. I was fortunate enough to receive the Jackie Abrams Scholarship which allowed me to travel to North Country Studio Workshops this winter to take a pottery class with Chris Staley.

Chris’s class completely expanded the horizons of my ceramic work and how I think about the artistic process. It was a deeply meaningful and introspective workshop which was held together by a joyful and supportive group of other potters and artists, and Chris’s brilliant teaching. In only a week I made deep connections with artists from across the country, and with these people and Chris’s guidance, I broke through some creative barriers and felt a whole new world of potential with what I could explore in my ceramic work.

 The workshop encouraged me to be as liberated as I could in exploring the forms I was making, pulling me away from ruts that I had gotten into in the previous years of production pottery. I hadn’t had an opportunity to talk much about my pottery with other artists, and the conversations were just as valuable as all the studio time, demonstrations and other activities.

 The workshop—since it was so far away from home, tucked into a beautiful, rural, snowy location during a quiet point in the year--felt like a rigorous creative retreat. Without the scholarship I wouldn’t have been able to attend, and it was such a deeply meaningful and inspiring journey.

 Since returning from the workshop, unfortunately I have not been able to spend much time at all in my studio because I got a full-time job at the university in the town I live.

 I’ve had a few stints in the studio, and since the workshop I have been inspired to work with red clay— something I have not done for years, as I got stuck on the porcelain bandwagon. It has been liberating to work with a much more earthy and groggy clay, and it has encouraged me to explore new bottle forms!

 I feel so fortunate to also still be in touch with my classmates from the workshop. One of the greatest gems of the experience was that another classmate took a teapot that I had made at the workshop (which I was not able to bring home) and fired it in her wood kiln. It felt like such a beautiful collaboration and I am so grateful for her generosity glazing my teapot and firing it in her kiln. 

 The workshop came at a very transitional time in my life— just about to turn 30, just about to become an aunt for the first time, just about to hear if I got a significantly career-boosting job (which I did.) I felt comfortable and encouraged to be open about these transitions during the class, and it was such a gift to use art as a means to explore uncertainty.

 Upon returning to Washington and hearing I got the job; I did have a small grain of sadness knowing I wouldn’t get to spend much time in the studio as I had hoped. I emailed my classmates with my update and feelings, and was reminded by a classmate: " you are truly a whole life artist- from farming to your ceramics, it is all a cohesive expression of your creative force, and I'm sure your work will just add another dimension to the creative work that is your life."

 By Ellie Duncan, 2023 recipient of Jackie Abrams Legacy Scholarship