Stinky Cheese Ceramics

I test and process and study clays, and create work that highlights our absurd relationship with the environment. Fascinated by natural cycles and technical processes, I am obsessed with clay and its relationship to both geology and soil science. I hunt and harvest wild clays as a continual practice of understanding this integral material in this land we live on. I observe our relationships with our environment and our attempts to manipulate and organize the natural world, and respond through meticulously detailed ceramic sculpture and pottery. Process and research are central to my work, and often my work is a study of my relationship to the ceramic process itself. Amy Joy Hosterman is a ceramic sculptor from Minnesota, now living and working in Colorado. Amy has been digging her own clay, building her own equipment, and leading wild-clay harvesting and raku-firing workshops across the country with her Traveling Kiln since 2014. Amy Joy Hosterman is the Owner of Stinky Cheese Ceramics LLC, Creative Director for non-profit Art Shape Mammoth, and Ceramics Director of the Visitor Center Artist Camp in Ewen, MI, where she has developed comprehensive clay programming for a near-wilderness annual artist residency, creating sculpture from the local clay deposits through hand-processing, testing, formulating, and firing the clay on site using locally available tools and materials. Amy has received grants for her work in both Minnesota and Michigan, including Irrigate Arts, Awesome Without Borders, Pollination Project, and Michigan Arts and Culture Council.