Local artist bringing Native American influences to Milton

MILTON — Ginger Corbett started working in ceramics over 25 years ago while living with her husband Kermit Corbett and only child Antoinette on Johns Island right outside Charleston, South Carolina.

She went from a novice ceramic painter to full-blown pottery artist in a short time. She will be a guest at Alyssa’s Antique Depot, 4586 Chumuckla Highway, on Nov. 16, from 6 a.m. to 3 p.m.

“I remember when my husband came to me and said that I needed to find something to do, because he didn’t want me working anymore,” Corbett said. “I want to try ceramics.”

Corbett, now 86-years-old, was born and raised in Albuquerque, New Mexico, which has a large artist community and pottery is a big part of the tourist trade.

She said she had always loved the pottery and art made by Native Americans.

“At first I would just paint ceramic items that other people had poured and fired,” Corbett said.

She soon found that she wanted more and enrolled in the Duke School of Clay and Fine Arts.

Corbett learned how to use the pottery wheel and hand-building techniques. In her first competition at school she won the Hobbyist Freddy Trophy for Best Sculptor.

“My teacher, Duke Reddy, used to tell me how much he liked to see me work,” Corbett said. “He told me I was a natural with clay.”

Corbett wanted to create the kind of pottery that was being done in New Mexico.

She fell in love with the Pueblo Indian pottery style of Maria Montoya Martinez, a Native American artist who created internationally-known pottery.

On a trip back to Albuquerque she went to see Martinez’s pottery, and maybe buy a piece. She was shocked at the prices.

“I decided to make my own pottery and copy her style,” Corbett said. That lead her to create her own style of pottery with a heavy Native American influence.

Her husband, Kermit, passed away in 2008 and she moved to Bagdad to live with her daughter and her family.

Corbett brought her pottery wheel and tools and set up shop in the garage and kitchen.

“I started having ’Pot Parties’ to sell what I was creating,” Corbett said as she laughed at her pun.

Corbett works with earthen ware, porcelain and stoneware.

Corbett said she loves to work with the wheel and hand-building equally.

“There is nothing on your mind when you work on the wheel except the clay and how it feels in your hand as you bring it up in form,” Corbett said. “When I create something it makes me feel good.”

This article originally appeared on Santa Rosa Press Gazette: Local artist bringing Native American influences to Milton