Mountain ceramicist molds her legacy from clay
Portrait by Lauren Rutten
Weaverville potter Tori Motyl has discovered the secret to eternal life, and it involves neither sipping snake oil nor uploading your consciousness to a computer.
Instead, the solution is fairly simple: clay.
“We as humans are constantly trying to figure out how we can be immortal — how we can exist beyond our bodies,” says Motyl. “That’s how I see pottery. Every time I sell a mug or a bowl, a little piece of me goes out into the world. So, even when I die, my work will continue serving a purpose.”
Motyl meditates on this heady topic regularly, but you wouldn’t guess that based on her line of functional stoneware alone. Sporting stripes of hot pink, verdant green, cerulean blue, and other peppy shades, the pieces don’t exactly scream “We’re all going to expire one day.” And that’s kind of the point. As Motyl notes, “I want my pieces to be bright and fun. I want people to feel happy when they use my pottery.”
A native of New York State, Motyl discovered the joy of pottery in elementary school. “When I was really young, I said I wanted to be a clay artist,” Motyl members, recounting a time she made a green slab plate during art class. Though she felt called to explore other mediums in high school and college, “I always came back to clay because you can do anything with it — there are no limitations.”
Inspired by this versatility, Motyl moved to Asheville in 2014 with hopes of launching her pottery career in earnest. For the next three years, she apprenticed at local pottery-making facilities like Black Mountain Studios, Hank Goodman Stoneware, Cathy Gerson Ceramics, and The Village Potters Clay Center before branching out on her own.
Today, Motyl’s eponymous business, Motyl Pottery, majors in functional crockery that’s just as acceptable for a posh dinner party as it is for a midnight pick-me-up. Motyl and her studio assistants make charcuterie trays, dip bowls, and other dishes using stoneware clay, which provides a clean, white surface — essentially a blank canvas.
Each piece is then anointed with three, sometimes four, different glazes. Though each glaze is alluring and whimsical on its own, Motyl believes “color combinations evoke emotions that one single color might not.”
Featuring greens, purples, and a bevy of blues, the latest line of products reminds Motyl of her parents’ new home in Florida. “The tropical colors of flowers make me feel relaxed and happy,” she notes.
Of course, Motyl — who is no stranger to pragmatism — doesn’t expect the end user to ruminate too much about the color of their espresso cup or snack plate. Instead, she simply hopes that her work makes appearances in daily life — that a mug be reserved for nightly chamomile tea or that a dinner bowl deliver ladles of hearty chicken-noodle soup. “I want to make something beautiful that somebody eats their cereal out of each morning,” the artist says.
In addition to her functional work, Motyl also crafts commissioned pieces. Though these vary in size and style, most are large floor vessels made from wild clay harvested from the client’s own property or a specific region that’s special to them. “I’ll go out with my shovel and just start digging holes until I identify an area where clay is present,” Motyl explains.
Typically, Motyl will harvest the clay and then take it back to her studio, where she filters out rocks, grass, and other detritus. But in some cases, the artist will skip the last step altogether. This affords a blemished yet authentic appearance that reinforces the client’s connection with the vessel, the land, and the artist.
“Sure, pottery isn’t going to change the world,” says Motyl. “But I feel like I’m doing something with my life that connects me with other people. That’s the underlying drive.”
Tori Motyl, Weaverville, Motyl Pottery, motylpottery.com. Motyl’s work is carried at New Morning Gallery in Biltmore Village (newmorninggallerync.com), at Seven Sisters Craft Gallery in Black Mountain (sevensistersgallery.com), and at Woolworth Walk in downtown Asheville (woolworthwalk.com). On the first Saturday and Sunday of August, 10am-4pm, Motyl will host “Big Bold Wild Clay Pots,” a workshop on wild clay and coiling, at Double Island Studio, Green Mountain (doubleislandstudio.com). On Saturday, Sept. 2, 4-7pm, Motyl will open a solo show at Plays in Mud Pottery (735-C Haywood Road, West Asheville, playsinmud.com). The show runs through the end of the month.