In the 1960s, a 12-year-old Pennsylvania girl formed a lump of clay into a small pot for her art class. By Lynn August’s own account, it was nothing special and was relegated to an obscure corner of the girl’s memory as Lynn grew into adulthood. She went into the restaurant business in Florida, and later moved to California where she became a mortgage broker.

Over the years, she would occasionally recall the feel of the clay and the possibilities it represented in what she calls little “what if” moments. She eventually gave in, turning her garage into a workshop where she balanced the nuts- and-bolts of her mortgage business with the water and clay of her pottery.

“Right brain, left brain,” she laughs now. “The more I worked at pottery, the more I knew this is what I wanted.” She sold her home, most of her possessions, piled the rest into a camper, and took off on a four-year expedition across America’s heartland, all the while shaping her clay pots into an evolving signature style. “The minute I took off, everything fell into place.”

Two years ago, Lynn aimed her camper toward Asheville where she set up shop in the Odyssey Studio in the River Arts District. Her work soon began attracting attention. Her corner of Odyssey includes a softly lit gallery where several dozen pieces display her signature style of iron oxide color and texture engraved with serpentine carving. Her pieces show their “family” resemblance even as they assert their personal individuality. To an interested observer, the effect reaches beyond “Buy me,” and instead suggests, “Collect us.”

When asked to describe her style, she hesitates before answering, “I can only say what people tell me they see in my work. There’s obviously a South-western motif, but you can also find hints of African and Native American. And some of the pieces even look a little Asian. ... I just let the carving happen.”

Her work area is lined with shelves of pieces waiting for the kiln, lumps of clay under cloth wraps, a small desk piled with papers, and her wheel. Watching her in this tight, cluttered space, one senses she truly has come home.

Of all the processes involved, it is the carving that Lynn loves most. “I’m not a patient person. But when I’m carving ... I put on a headset, listen to New Age instrumental music, and let my hands and knife work the pot. It’s all so meditative that sometimes I finish a piece in an hour, sometimes it takes two or three hours. It doesn’t matter.”

To see more of her work, visit lynnaugust.com. Jim Murphy is a former copy editor for the Los Angeles Times. He can be reached at jimurph@yahoo.com.