FEATURED ARTISTS
ASHLEY MILES
I was raised in Arizona and lived there until 2021. I moved to Ilwaco in 2024 following a few years in Indiana while my husband attended graduate school. I have a bachelor’s degree in Psychology and a Master’s Degree in Special Education and have been working with Autistic children, teens and adults for the past 9 years.
My ceramic education has been unconventional. For the past decade, I’ve learned primarily through observing the career of my husband, Hans, who is the studio manager of Ilwaco Artworks. Over the years I’ve attended ceramic conferences, helped with kiln firings, and spent a lot of time with ceramic artists, though I never really worked with clay until we moved to Ilwaco. The welcoming atmosphere and variety of classes available for all experience levels made me feel more comfortable experimenting with this medium.
I love wheel-throwing and like to spend time practicing and honing my skills in this area. Although I quickly fell in love with the practice of throwing, I initially felt stuck when trying to design my pieces. I spent time trying to find what was inspiring to me and realized that I should borrow from my career, as it is important for me to support my learners with ways to honor and use their special interests to their benefit. I quickly found that I find the most inspiration from things in my life that I love- my cats, my favorite musicians and my favorite movies and TV shows. This sparked the beginning of damn fine pottery- my Twin Peaks mug project.
I first fell in love with Twin Peaks in high school, binging it on Netflix over winter break of my Junior year. This quickly led to an obsession with not only the show, but David Lynch’s filmography as a whole. The dreamlike quality of his work has always captivated and inspired me.
Twin Peaks is a surrealist drama/mystery television show created by David Lynch and Mark Frost. It first aired in 1990 and set the groundwork for much of television as we know it today. Twin Peaks is set in a small Washington town and follows FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper as he investigates the murder of the town’s homecoming queen, Laura Palmer, but things in the town are not what they seem. Although the show was cancelled after its second season, its impact can’t be ignored– without Twin Peaks, shows like The X-Files, Lost, The Sopranos, Severance, and Stranger Things would likely never exist.
My process starts by choosing a quote I want to see on a mug. I keep an on-going list of quotes from the show, adding more during every re-watch. When choosing a design to accompany the quote, I like to think about the images the quote evokes. There is so much beautiful imagery in the show from dark forests to sunny diners and the iconic ‘red room’. I try to think about where in the Twin Peaks universe the quote fits best. I stamp the quote, as well as tree and chevron designs when the mug is leather hard. Once bisqued I wax over clear glazed sections which allows me to maintain clear borders between the stamped designs and the improvisational glazing. I enjoy layering and dripping glazes to create fluidity and movement on the surfaces. I’ve also explored the use of overglaze decals on some of my work. In November 2025, I attended an underglaze application class presented by Norah Amstutz and began exploring new methods of illustration on my pieces. I love learning new skills and am excited to continue to grow this project.
Visit damnfinepottery.squarespace.com to see more of my portfolio. | Instagram @damnfinepottery
MARIANNE MOTT & LORI WEBB
“My friend Lori and I became friends in high school and had a few art classes together. Pottery was our favorite. We had a great instructor that really put up with a lot of shenanigans from us. I think Lori became one of his favorites even though we were always on the cusp of being delinquent. She took the class seriously and made some very nice pieces. Most of my pieces ended up smashed because they resembled a smoking device.
We met up again on the peninsula forty-ish years later and our friendship started right back up again. Our lives parallel in some many ways our interests and life philosophy are similar.
We had been talking about getting into pottery again and Lori even got a throwing wheel. We took the Chia pet class, and both joined the studio that day. Now we like to meet here as often as we can to hang out, catch up and be creative.”
MARIANNE MOTT:
“My inspiration for art is nature, and anything related to nature. Things that are fluid and unpredictable, most importantly out of my control.
Working with clay has helped me to embody all these things. We take Earth and modify it, shape it to our liking, color it our favorite hue but in the end, there is no guarantee it will emerge to our liking.
Perfecting the art of letting go.
My work is purely experimental currently. I am trying many different methods and glaze combinations and seeing where things end up.”
Facebook: marianne.mott.7 | Instagram: mariannemott
LORI WEBB:
“Marianne and I took pottery at Battle Ground high school in the 70’s with Mr. Lowery as our instructor. He would allow me to work on the wheel after school and during breaks. I fell in love with working with clay.
I enjoy wheel throwing, free form, as well as hand-building.I have learned so much from our fabulous studio manager, Hans Miles, as well as the very talented Julianna, our studio assistant. Many thanks to our insightful, talented studio owner Thandi.
My daily visits to the Ilwaco Artworks studio are my favorite part of the day.”
IRIS DOUGLAS
“I’m a natural scientist who now serves rural families and young children as a speech pathologist. I’m a dog lover. For what it’s worth, I have two Masters degrees. I’m most content in open spaces, and when doing art. Something freeing happens when I’m being creative, it’s like a quiet “rushing” of energy. Something delightful and larger than me flows through me in the studio. I sometimes can’t move fast enough to keep up. I feel like art stuff comes out of my body, not my brain, or even specifically my heart.
My inspirations are dreams, trips, myths, fairytales, and connections to the natural world. I admire outsider artists, scientific illustrators, and groundbreaking female/femme creators.I look at the work I create in clay and see pieces that are loose, exploratory, playful, sometimes funny, and at other times dark or unnerving. A piece is successful to me when there are lots of layers to explore, the color is just right, or it makes me laugh in glee or surprise. My pieces often seem alive.
I’ve been doing ceramics for over a year now and am starting to “feel “ an understanding of the medium. I’m now conversational in something that felt completely foreign before.
Most of my art experience in life comes from just doodling on the margins of paper—on bills, on homework assignments or handouts at work.
3D work is altogether new to me. Perhaps I shouldn’t be surprised, but I still am, when my ceramic pieces resemble the repetitive 2D characters and shapes I have doodled over the years.
I rarely know where I’m going with a piece. I finish one step and the next one appears. I don’t think this is uncommon for artists, but it’s consistent for me. Sometimes I get excited when I make mistakes or something breaks because it keeps me ready and in the moment.. the excitement of not knowing what will happen next.”