AMY JOY
Creative Director, Board Secretary & Treasurer
LOVELAND, COLORADO
I’m obsessed with clay as a material. I’m fascinated with geologic cycles and the science of clay, and the history of its relationship to human culture. I hunt and harvest wild clays around the country and hand-process them for use in my studio, as a continual practice of understanding this material which is so integral to our lives. Technical process and research are central to my work, and often my work is a study of my relationship to the ceramic process itself.
My pottery is almost never finished in a single color or with a plain smooth surface. I carve my own clay stamps, and find great satisfaction in embossing every inch of my pots with texture and imagery. Distilling my ideas down into iconic images and repetitive patterns, I illustrate complex narratives using a simple visual language. I use bright colors and a simplistic, illustrative style that gives my work a cute look at first glance, but looking closely, it usually has a dark, ironic, or satirical tone.
About Amy Joy Hosterman:
Fascinated by rocks, dirt, history, and process, Amy Joy Hosterman has been researching and collecting wild clays and minerals across the country since earning her BFA in Ceramics from the University of Minnesota in 2010. Her work focuses on the continual study of clay and its role in the natural cycles of our terrestrial world, and comments on our absurd relationships with our environment. She covers her slab-built pottery in repetitive illustrations, using stamps to narrate complex stories with simplified images, and contrasts the bare clay surface with brightly colored commercial glazes. Hosterman co-founded the Visitor Center Artist Camp, a near-wilderness artist residency and environmental arts workshop site in Upper Michigan, where she developed and has directed the Wild Clay Workshop each summer since 2014. She creates under the name Stinky Cheese Ceramics at her studio in Loveland, Colorado, and teaches workshops while traveling and hunting for wild clays across the country.
Amy’s Online Store: stinkycheeseceramics.com
Contact: amyjoy@artshapemammoth.org