James DeRosso

Santa Fe, NM

(b. Oregon, 1963)

It all started in middle school art class in The Dalles, Oregon. Ms. Orr introduced me to clay and it’s been a part of my life ever since. I received my college degree in Graphic Design, but had spent a great deal of my art electives in the ceramic studio. After college, I started working in advertising, but ceramics is what I would be doing at night on my own time. A ceramics commission job forced me to step away from my advertising job and start up a professional clay studio.

The specific niche of creating monsters all began when I would make small guardian creatures that I placed on top of the kiln to ward off bad results during firings. Friends wanted those creatures more than the ceramic wares that I was loading in the kiln. I’m enjoying the whole monster world of art, and the kind of people that are attracted to it.

I have now been making and teaching ceramics for almost 30 years. It’s amazingly gratifying to be doing ceramics full time, and especially to be a teacher introducing kids to the joy of clay.