When you walk around the Ann Arbor Art Fair this week you will run into vendors making their art fair debut. You also will run into vendors who have been setting up here for years – and then there is Pam O’Hara.
The longtime Dexter resident has been selling her unique and impressive pottery at the Ann Arbor Art Fair for 38 years.
“My kids grew up helping me with the art fair,” says O’Hara, who works in Ann Arbor and has lived in Dexter for 30 years after growing up in Cincinnati.
“I am looking forward to wonderful weather for the art fair (which we are keeping our fingers crossed that it won’t be the heat we had last week),” she says. “I am with the Guild of Artists & Artisans (Ann Arbor Summer Art Fair) which are located on South Main, a portion of Liberty & S. State St. The guild makes the fair enjoyable for both the artists and the fair goers. We are always there to help with any questions.”
Getting her hands into the “mud” is truly her bliss!
“My pottery is functional, high fired stoneware,” she says.
Her distinctive colors and glazes are warm and comforting to the touch and her artistic talent shines through in her beautiful shapes of her vessels.
Growing up in Cincinnati, O’Hara used to gather the natural clay from the creek bed and form objects d’art – at least her mother thought so. After college, she decided to take a “clay” class from Charlie Blosser at Oakland Community College and quickly caught the “bug” once again.
O’Hara has taught clay classes to both children and adults in Dexter and Ann Arbor. She has exhibited in galleries in Michigan and Ohio.
In 2008, O’Hara and three other artists started Artistica Gallery in downtown Dexter. The gallery features great works by all Michigan artists.
O’Hara will be at the Art Fair at Booth MN140, on S. Main near Washington.
For more information on O’Hara, check out her work at www.pinehillpottery.net.
For more information on the Artistica Gallery, log onto http://www.artisticagallery.net/
