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Marilyn Stover

Marilyn Stover's "incredible wanderlust" has been a major influence on her life and in her work with clay. After obtaining a degree in Spanish, Marilyn worked as an international flight attendant for fifteen years. Her travels included trips to South America, which instilled in her a strong interest in Mayan, Aztec, and Inca cultures and art forms. In 1989, an encounter with potter Dan Finch led Marilyn to express her memories of foreign culture in clay. Her reliefs are reflections of her travels abroad, and the tiles that she creates are based on her love of Native American art.

Through the early '90's, Marilyn studied pottery and glaze making under Ed Brown at Barton College in Wilson, North Carolina. In Wilmington, North Carolina for a year she studied raku, box making, and other pottery techniques under internationally respected potters, Hiroshi Sueyoshi and Traudi Thornton.

Marilyn's hand built clay forms now include coiled clay baskets. She incorporates natural accents such as cedar or grapevine handles with beads and feathers in her baskets. Combining "products of nature" with clay vessels provides interesting contrasts and satisfies Marilyn's desire to use more than one element in her work.

Marilyn's most recent adventure involved teaching pottery on a Princess Cruise ship for a month with her husband, John, who is also a clay artist.  Again, this combined their love for clay with travel.  They enjoyed cruising through the Panama Canal, making port calls in Central and South America and the Caribbean, while teaching throwing and hand building during the at-sea days.