Judith Motzkin

There are a lot of stories here. In the saggar fired work there is the story of clay and fire and influences. It is story of learning to risk it all, to set up accidents of smoke and vapors and relish the serendipity that sings or move on. In the assemblages and installations, there are stories of grief, gathering, impermanence, migration and the human condition. There are stories of reuse and repurposing of materials with processes that imitate nature’s forces of change. There are, in the BreadPots and SpiritKeeper Urns, stories of a potter’s journey toward creating work that soothes peoples’ need for sustenance and comfort.
I hope to tell them fearlessly, with excellence conceived in practice, with integrity, and with purpose.

Judith Motzkin has worked in ceramics and mixed media for over 40 years. She received the Massachusetts Artist Fellowship Award in Craft in 2019. Known for her unique method of painting with combustibles, Motzkin synthesizes clay, fire, and serendipity to echo the random beauty of nature. Her work includes assemblage and site specific installations. Motzkin’s “flame-painted” vessels are in the collections of the MFA Boston, Fuller Craft, Crocker Art and Jingdezhen Ceramics Museums and featured on the covers of Lark Books 500 Bowls, Best of Pottery and Ceramics Monthly. After working at Clay Dragon Studios in Cambridge, she opened her studio in the stable behind her Cambridgeport cottage. Judy was founding director of CAOS, Cambridge’s open studios. Motzkin has her degree in Asian Studies from Cornell University, 1976. She was selected for an early US-China Friendship delegation in 1975, focused on women. Judith has taught at MIT and Harvard and has shown and taught internationally- most recently teaching Creative Practice/Sculpture in Shanghai, China, 2018. Her large installation of “All in the Same Boat” hangs in the lobby of the school. Travel and study of Native American, Mexican, Chinese and Asian Art and History are strong influences.

Country: United States

Artist Category: Ceramic Artists, General, and Studio Potters