Meghan Bernard, artist
By Gina Malone
Meghan Bernard found her passion for clay while a student at Michigan State University studying Art Education. “I loved the flexibility and science in the medium and couldn’t get enough,” she says. “My grandma Edith gifted me a potter’s wheel for graduation that I still use today.” Bernard now shares her knowledge with young artists at Tryon Arts and Crafts School, but spends most of her time creating pots in her own studio. “I love the solitude and the satisfaction in making things,” she says.
Meghan Bernard, artist
She need only look outside the windows of her studio for inspiration. “I’ve always looked at the flora and fauna that is surrounding my work space,” she says. “All of the animals I carve into my porcelain pieces visit my yard and home. I focus on who shows up. For example, the Tufted Titmouse design came from a baby bird my daughter found and helped me raise during the pandemic. We fed him and set him free, and he would still visit with us in the yard. My newest design is a black cat. She was a feral stray that had kittens under my house; we took her and her babies in. After rehoming her kittens, we kept her. She’s now the best studio assistant. Her name is Twinkie, and she loves to sit on my wedging table while I work, and she helps me garden.”
Process for Bernard begins with a sketchbook. “I do exhaustive studies of the animals I’m focused on until I’m satisfied with my ideas,” she says. “Then I have to translate that to the pots.” Often weeks of trial and error are needed before she is satisfied with a design. “It’s a long process full of failures and problem solving,” she says. “But once my design is sorted and consistent, I offer it to the public.”
Her porcelain pots are thrown on the wheel and then carved and hand-painted with underglaze. She decides on forms that will work to best effect with the carved images. The pots are then fired in the kiln, glazed and fired again.
Meghan Bernard, artist
“I love the process,” she says, “some parts more than others, of course. But at the end of all the steps and successes and failures, you get this shiny little object that feels good in your hand as you drink your first sip of coffee out of it. I love how meditative my time in the studio feels. It’s so rare for my brain to just focus on one thing. I’m usually multitasking, and it’s a relief to be able to pay attention to what my hands have to do right now.”
Her work is available regionally at 7 Sisters Gallery in Black Mountain. “We love how Meghan’s work brings a smile to everyone’s face,” says gallery owner Andrea McNair. “And the quality is second to none.”
Bernard’s own childhood in Detroit was filled with opportunity for creativity and she has brought that energy and openness to her own home. “My husband is a painter/printmaker and my daughter is currently in the middle of about a million art projects,” Bernard says. “We are definitely a house of makers here in Tryon.”
Meghan Bernard, artist
As she creates, she enjoys thinking about where her pieces go once they leave her studio. “I love being a small part of people’s daily rituals and habits,” she says. “Be it a mug or a vase, I’m delighted to have a hand in something that gives someone joy.”
Find Meghan Bernard’s work at 7 Sisters Gallery, 119 Broadway Avenue, Black Mountain. Bernard’s Tryon studio is open by appointment by emailing meghanbernardpottery@gmail.com or by calling 828.337.7398. Learn more at MeghanBernardPottery.com and on Instagram @meghanbernardpottery.
