Potters Market at the Mint
September 27, 2025
Josh Copus Ceramics, Marshall NC
My work is a collaboration between clay, fire, and ideas. I dig my clays from the ground and process them by hand. I fire my pieces in a wood-burning kiln that I built. My ideas come from my experiences in this world. I mostly make simple shapes and things that feel like rocks.
My work with ceramics begins with the clay. My ceramic studio practice is essentially an effort to distill the experiences of my life and infuse them into my work with clay. This practice grew out of an interest in creating personally significant work that communicates my enthusiasm for the material and the process of making, and strongly reflects the influences that inform the decisions I make in my life and in the studio.
By using wild materials dug from the river bottoms and mountainsides of North Carolina, my work gains a connection to place and establishes the materials as a valuable source of influence. Everything I make contains an element of my response to the experience of working with these materials.
My interest in using wild materials is not limited to the influence of their physical properties and extends to the intangible qualities that these materials can bring to the work. The physical properties of my materials are not as unique as my experience of using them and it is the increased participation in the creative process that I have come to value most. Digging my own clay has increased my connection to the area where I live and furthered my relationship with the surrounding community, creating an authentic context for my work to exist in. Most importantly I find a great amount of excitement in digging my own clay and my hope is that the enthusiasm I have for my materials is transferred to the finished product. I want each piece to carry with it the feeling I get when I’m working with wild clay straight from the ground.
The experience of working with wild materials has contributed greatly to my growth as both an artist and a person. It has confirmed my belief that the more highly developed a maker is as a human being, the better their work in the world will be. There is no real beauty without character and like the clay that I use to make it, my work is a reflection of my character.