Queen City Clay.Day 1

On July 5, 2026, I began a three-week residency at Queen City Clay in Cincinnati, Ohio.

I arrived only two days after returning from a nine-day trip to Oregon, so to say I was tired would be an understatement. I was exhausted, disorganized, and honestly a little scared. I was excited, of course, but I was also carrying that strange mix of hope and self-doubt that seems to come with stepping into a new space and asking yourself what you are really capable of making there.

Queen City Clay had already been part of my life for years before I ever walked through the doors. As a high school ceramics teacher, I have used their videos with my students again and again. Their centering and pulling-up demonstrations have helped so many of my students understand the basics of throwing, and in a way, Queen City Clay had already been teaching alongside me in my classroom.

Last year, while I was in Cincinnati for an opening at Manifest Gallery, where I had a couple of pieces in a show, I decided it was finally time to visit QCC in person. I was completely blown away. I have been lucky to take classes and workshops at places like Arrowmont, Archie Bray, Purdue University, the Greater Lafayette Art Museum, and anywhere else I could find opportunities to learn. Queen City Clay felt like all of those places somehow folded together: generous, active, serious, welcoming, and full of possibility.

After that visit, I applied for a residency. I received a grant to help make it possible. And on July 5, I arrived.

By the time I got there, I felt like I was running on fumes. I had packed quickly, traveled too much, and carried a lot of nervous energy with me. But almost as soon as I stepped into the studio space, something settled. The fear did not disappear completely, but it softened. The room, the clay, the tools, the people, and the sense of possibility all made me feel like I could begin. I started making the space my own.

And that felt like enough for the first day.

Nervous, but ready!