Green River Pottery

Largely a self-taught potter, I have been working with clay full-time since 1998. I was born in Ithaca, New York, and graduated from Oberlin College, where I studied Philosophy, French, and Music. I moved to Santa Fe in 1989. Teaching English in the Santa Fe schools, I began to seek out potters to apprentice.

This was the beginning of my career in art—though actually, I had always spent my time in studios and workshops, and had always sought out artists from whom I could learn about form, materials, tools. Using my hands to be creative has always seemed essential to me in life. As a teenager I apprenticed in the metal shop of Murad Sayen, and the aesthetics of iron and steel influence my pots now—they often seem ‘forged’ or ‘rusty,’ with metallic surface treatments used in place of a glaze.

In 1998 I built my first kiln and studio in Chimayo, New Mexico. Since that time I have built numerous kilns, prospected around the state for clays I can make into pots, and, in 2009, moved my business to its present Santa Fe location. Influenced by the ‘Studio Potter’ movement of the mid twentieth century, my instinct is to work independently, pursuing a body of work that constantly evolves, that is closely related to the earth as both source and aesthetic inspiration, and that reflects my particular geographic location, my particular vision.

Theo Helmstadter
Green River Pottery
Santa Fe, NM