Matt Steadman Biography

I was born in Pascagoula, MS in 1975.  In 1991, I moved to Gautier, MS and graduated from Pascagoula High School in 1992. I began making pots in the summer of 1995, while I was a student at Jones County Community College. After three semesters of pottery classes, I went to work at Shearwater Pottery.  There I worked for more than a year under the direction of master potter Jim Anderson.   I followed this valuable experience by studying pottery under Talle Johnson at William Carey College in Gulfport , MS.  In the Spring of 1998, I transferred to the University of Mississippi and studied under Ron Dale.  I graduated from the University of Mississippi with a bachelor of fine arts degree with an emphasis in ceramics in In May 2001. After graduation, I returned to Gautier and established Marsh End Pottery.

Artist's Statement

From my earliest exposure to pottery, I was drawn to the traditional pottery forms of Japan, China, and Korea. The grace and lift that these forms convey says something very different from traditional American and European pottery.

It is important for me to produce large numbers of pots.  This allows me to establish a cycle or flow of work, with work all around the shop in various stages of completion.  For example, while pots are still too wet to trim, there is clay to be wedged for the next group.  This makes the physical labor of the work most efficient and breaks the monotony of doing one thing for an extended time.

When throwing in repetition, your hands learn the steps in throwing the forms.  The fact that it's not so essential to concentrate on the mechanics of throwing allows me to be more creative.  The forms I create take on an unlabored feeling.

The use of woodash as a glaze material is a major aspect of my work.  Wood and plant ashes have been employed by potters throughout history, initially as byproducts of the firing process and later as a direct addition to glazes.  Ash as a material shares a duality with nature, in that both are simple as well as complex.  Because each plant creating the ash is made up of different minerals and oxides, the variation of color and texture are wide.  My goal is not to refine these materials excessively, but to use them with as few additions as possible in order to retain this natural quality.   Woodash, when fired to high temperatures, takes on a watery texture, pulling and beading to reveal the clay beneath.   Even with the addition of coloring oxides, these glazes show a “quietness” or “naturalness” that I find appealing