By Ann Leach
Mark Strayer is a man with a mission. “I would simply like to pass on through my work the importance of handmade objects and how wonderful they can make one feel,” he says. “The imagery I use on most of my work regularly evokes happy memories from my customers and makes a real personal connection.”
Strayer, a potter, works in his home studio about 10 miles east of Lamar, Missouri, on 15 acres of totally wooded property with two small streams running through it. “It’s a quiet place. And I like that it has lots of natural light. There are two electric kilns to fire my functional ware and all of my Raku firing is done in a handmade portable kiln in my driveway.”
Strayer discovered clay as a medium in 1997. “I was working at Fisher- Price,” he says. “And they offered their designers opportunities to pursue other creative experiences to stimulate our creativity. I took an eight-week beginner course in ceramics and was immediately hooked.”
But Strayer has always had ideas for his creative process. “I typically have more ideas I want to pursue than I can fit in. I challenge myself to learn something new every year. It might be a new decorating technique, a way to fire differently, a new shape or to create new glazes. I then try and integrate this new element into my work to keep things fresh and interesting.
“My work is primarily functional ware but I also have a following for my small ceramic buildings. I think my desire to create useful and functional pieces comes from my industrial design background. I enjoy the idea of my customers using my pieces. I imagine them sitting at the dinner table or having a snack in front of the TV eating from one my dishes or drinking from one of my cups. It’s that that gives me a great deal of satisfaction.”
All of his functional ware is fired in an electric kiln to Cone 5-6. “My work continues to evolve with the use of surface decoration techniques. I am currently using handmade stamps, slip trailing, digital image transfers and sgraffito. I love complex layering of textures for a rich visual experience for the user. All my newer work combines all these techniques. My transfer imagery is primarily inspired either by interest in vintage black and white imagery of people and things or my love of nature.”
Strayer parlays some of his many ideas into donated bowls he creates for the annual Empty Bowls event managed by Watered Gardens and benefiting four area nonprofits that provide meals and food to those who are food insecure.
“I participate because I don’t understand how in our country today, we can have people, our neighbors, who don’t have enough to eat. As a potter, to make a simple bowl is such a basic thing to produce yet it also can create such a strong metaphor that symbolizes when empty, how great the need is to feed people. If my bowls can help make that happen, I am happy to donate.”
Strayer’s work can be found at Local Color Gallery in Joplin and online in his Etsy shop, https://www.etsy.com/shop/NorthStarPottery.
“I also have a few pieces in the gift shop at ArtCentral in Carthage. If you have never eaten from or taken a sip from a handmade piece of pottery, please do. Your meals will never be the same and you won’t regret it.”
“If you have never eaten from or taken a sip from a handmade piece of pottery, please do. Your meals will never be the same and you won’t regret it.” – Mark Strayer