Ramah Commanday

Crystal Springs Pottery, 374 Viewmont Road, Germantown 12526 | 510-206-9122 |
Handicap accessible | Opem Labor Day Monday
ramah.commanday@gmail.com | |amah-commanday.squarespace.com | @crystalspringspottery

Artist Statement

My work is about geology and about vessels. I’ve always been fascinated by the surfaces and colors of rocks and the regular irregularities of the landscape. Working with both the materials and forces that create rock and landscape, I try to explore and evoke the captured motion of geologic forms, the subtleties and the drama of geologic surfaces.

The discipline and tradition of functional vessel forms has always connected clay to humankind, and is an important element of my work. Outer form and inner spaces, edges and openings, and the shifting transformation of vessels in daily use has always tied people to clay. Vessel form is a timeless discipline that I try to explore and honor in my work.

I grew up in California and began working in clay at UC Santa Cruz and continued working in clay in Israel, England and the West Indies.

My interest in wood firing began in 2007 in the Napa Valley, where I began firing at the Pope Valley Pottery, and subsequently with Nick Schwartz, Scott Ross and Scott Parady in Northern California, and John Dix in Ogama, Japan.

In September 2020, my Napa Valley home and studio were destroyed by a major wildfire and the following year I relocated to the Hudson Valley.  This summer, I look forward to welcoming the public to my new studio on Viewmont Road in Germantown, New York.