House of TAU

House of TAU Studio produces small batch, handbuilt ceramics for food, plants, and ritual. (“Handbuilt” means that artworks are custom made without a wheel, the old fashioned way. ) Pieces are hand-painted and glazed with one-of-a-kind designs from dreams, ancestors, and a deep connection with nature.

The studio is based out of an Historic 1890s House in the heart of Cabbagetown. K.Tauches is the artist behind House of TAU. At the studio, she produces her own work and creative experiments (as well as guerrilla gardening in the empty lot next door). She also opens up her studio to a small community of potters who fire with her, acting as a “pottery coach” to all levels of practitioners.

House of Tau has operated as an official studio since 2022, when Tauches shifted gears to focus on the materialism of ceramics. That year she was the artist in Residence at The Blue Heron Nature Preserve and curated the outdoor exhibition “Light as A Feather,” as well as presenting her own solo exhibition entitled, “Everyday Deities.” Previously K.Tauches participated in the Atlanta Art Scene as a curator, Arts writer, designer, and artist since the late 90s.

house-of-tau.com // @ houzz_of_tau

Valerie LaPlaca / staryouare.ceramics

Valerie LaPlaca was born in Connecticut and grew up in Atlanta. Her love for nature, shaped by years of hiking, camping, fishing, and exploring, has become a central inspiration in her work. Valerie is drawn to the contrasts found in nature—the interplay of softness and sharpness that exists both in the environment and within the nature of humanity. She finds delight in the sensation of being pricked by a thorn or sharp leaf, as well as the feeling of holding a perfectly soft stone, weathered and smoothed by the water it once lived in. Through these experiences, Valerie seeks to explore the organic push and pull that nature invites, a theme she aims to capture in her art. Memory also plays a significant role in Valerie’s creative process. She is inspired by both the earliest memories we hold and the impressions we leave on others. In addition, she is deeply moved by the memory that clay itself carries, preserving traces of touch and time.

Valerie holds onto every card and handwritten note, cherishing trinkets with sentimental value. Often, she writes poems that reflect her thoughts, and occasionally, those words find their way onto her pots as well. Through her functional work, Valerie seeks to evoke a sense of discovery and meaning, encouraging others to find personal connection and significance in the objects they interact with.

LOST: “This series of plates is rooted in my earliest memory: finding a baby fawn nestled in the grass outside my childhood home in Connecticut. That quiet, tender moment left an imprint on me—an early understanding of what it means to be lost, and gently found. These plates reflect that feeling of being suspended in the in-between: lost in nature, in memory, in emotion—and slowly finding your way through. Each piece is meant to be used. I love the idea of someone eating off these plates—of them becoming part of everyday rituals, of nourishment and presence. That act of touch, of holding and using something made with intention, mirrors the very process of reconnecting with yourself. Through these forms, I hope to invite a quiet kind of discovery—a way to feel both grounded and open to what’s still unfolding.”

@staryouare.ceramics

Stacey Lawrence

Stacey Lawrence is a multidisciplinary artist. She received her BFA from Savannah College of Art and Design. She has exhibited nationwide and is represented in the Bahamas. Drawn to abstraction, she paints the intangible. She is constantly experimenting; balancing form, color and line, to create evoking imagery. Randomly, subjectively, emotionally - she expresses herself with artistic freedom. There are no expectations, only the desire to create soulful, thought provoking work. Using a variety of mediums, including oil and acrylic paints, cold wax, graphite, markers, pencils, plastics, chalks and random papers she creates what she refers to as ‘oddly comfortable’ compositions. Here, she contrasts the familiar with the unknown, offering a sense of security where feelings of vulnerability exist.

LOST: "I find it fascinating to explore where intentional and experimental efforts merge. I have found that by relinquishing control and momentarily detaching, my creative process is heightened and my artistic expression is honest. It is this combination of certainty and unexpectedness that lures me to create and defines my relationship with my art."

@staceylawrenceart

O.M. Norling

Jay Wilson paints under the pen-name O.M. Norling, a moniker borrowed from his great-great grandfather. Jay was born in 1971. He’s the youngest of three brothers and son to a career army father and mother who put up with it all. Growing up, Jay found himself frequently adjusting to new surroundings. Six formative years of living and attending school in Germany and South Korea exposed Jay to European and Asian cultures. This mixture of influences and experiences is apparent in his works. With pencil, brush and oil paint, he constructs eccentric compositions made up of animals, objects and furniture that all echo another time. They are beautiful, dark and humorous stories about the human experience.

LOST in Translation: “I think the word ‘translation’ is most commonly used to define an enabling of comprehension. It’s also a way of describing an act of conversion. As individuals on our respective paths in this game called the human experience, wins are always pleasant and welcome… but don’t the losses, miscues and stumbles provide more potential to be transformative? Recognizing and embracing the negatives, then translating those observations or experiences into fuel for the positive is the stuff that prepares the ground for renewal and reinvention.”

omnorling.com // @om_norling

Ciel Rodriguez

Ciel Rodriguez is a papermaker, letterpress printer, bookbinder, photographer, possible poet and who knows what else. Continually inspired by our connections with nature, she embeds natural materials into her handmade paper collages and uses the gestures of plant life to embody emotions found within our human selves. From large handmade paper works to artists’ books, Ciel’s artistic practice focuses on enveloping her viewers and readers in quiet expanses, evoking states of mind or states of remembrance. She completed her BFA at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago with an emphasis in papermaking and analogue photography. She received her MFA from the University of Georgia in Printmaking and Book Arts, as well as Museum Studies in 2021. She currently works in the curatorial department at the Georgia Museum of Art.

LOST: “Lost in memory, lost in a dream, lost in thought… swirling, sinking, slipping, searching, { forgiveness} Are there memory exercises one can do to help prevent memories from warping or slipping away? Is the memory of a madeleine something you can trust or an experience you can cultivate once again? Embedding moments, scents and sensation into the work, Rodriguez stimulates moments of reflection. When she is making these handmade sheets of paper, she works outside, moving her entire body around the mold and deckle. It is a performative act, a ceremonial act – mixing water, fiber, pigments, and natural materials, such as dried flowers or tea leaves, together. Holes in the handmade paper collages embody the fading nature of memory – the way that moments begin to fill with holes as time slips by and the details, dates, scents, colors and shapes within our memories slowly fade. As humans, is it possible that we better understand ourselves and each other through nature? To better understand life, decay, or death?”

@cielrodriguez.studio

Emily Vargas

Emily Vargas (she/her) is a multidisciplinary artist based in Atlanta, GA. Her practice uses found materials to renew her creative process. She is interested in finding uses for them where they can take on another life and become imbued with new meaning. Vargas received her B.F.A. in drawing, painting, and printmaking from Georgia State University in 2021 and her A.A. in art from Middle Georgia State University in 2018. While pursuing her degrees, she received an AT&T Foundation Grant and the Edna McCandless Thornton Award.

LOST: “The word lost infers beyond the immediate; it identifies something or someone as valued, the absence noticed and missed, with someone somewhere hopeful for recovery. Art, particularly textile/fiber and functional art, shares a history of dismissal with the natural world surrounding us. With mass production and hyperconsumption everywhere we look, the loss of appreciation for the environment and other people is more noticeable than ever as we realize how much is irreplaceable. My practice aims to celebrate the beauty found in both the natural world and in work made with care. I use sewing, knotting, and repurposed materials with their own history.”

emilyvargasart.com // @emilyvargasart

Wilson Allen

Wilson Allen is a calligrapher and graphic designer born and raised in a log house in Georgia. He traveled north to study at the School of the Artist Institute of Chicago where he developed a keen interest in letterpress printing and bookbinding. Wilson designed the cover of this booklet and assisted in its binding. You will also find his original calligraphy on the quote cards. Wilson recently moved back to Georgia and is excited to do anything relating to design and the book arts.  // @calligraphy_wilson

Ryan Burger

Ryan Burger is the owner and cheesemaker of The Woodsman & Wife. He has been making cheese for nearly nine years, previously managing two dairies in the South, including Blackberry Farm in Tennessee. Ryan has also worked in renowned restaurants across America, including stages at 3-starred Michelin restaurants Manresa and Quince in California and Blue Hill at Stone Barns in New York. He was Executive Sous Chef for Jean Georges Market in Atlanta, Georgia before venturing into cheesemaking and farming. Ryan’s food philosophy is greatly rooted in simple, sustainable, local food focusing on close farm relationships and growing, raising, and foraging for ingredients.  // @thewoodsmanandwife

Eduardo Porto Carreiro 

Eduardo Porto Carreiro is a beverage director with nearly 15 years of experience creating and managing profitable wine, beer, and spirit programs and educating restaurant staff in beverage service and salesmanship for high-profile chef-driven restaurants. He is a nationally-recognized sommelier and discerning wine buyer with expertise in discovering up-and-coming wine producers and sourcing rare and collectible bottles. He is known for curating wine lists that elevate restaurants and pursues wines that display honesty, purity, and place.  // @_eduardo_pc

Diane Churn

Diane is a professional photographer with nearly 20 years of experience. She primarily focuses on children and family portraiture, with a specialty in black and white hand-colored prints. She loves to use natural lighting and expressions, and poses that come easily to her clients. She also creates custom-made frames, glass tiles, books, cards, lampshades, wall murals, and magnet boards for her clients to showcase their photos. She shoots around the country, with a concentration in Atlanta, Georgia and Chapel Hill, North Carolina, where she resides with her three children.

CATHERINE CLEMENTS

Catherine Clements is a papermaker and book artist living in Athens, GA. She received her master’s degree from the UGA Printmaking and Book Arts program in 2019. She completed her undergraduate studies in printmaking and arts management at Bowling Green State University in Bowling Green, OH in 2013. Her work has been exhibited nationally at such venues as Core New Art Space in Denver, CO, the Maryland Federation of Art in Annapolis, MD, and the Pasaquan Visionary Art Site in Buena Vista, GA. Catherine has attended workshops and residencies at Anderson Ranch Arts Center, Spark Box Studio, the Hambidge Center for Arts and Sciences, and Frogman’s Print Workshop, among others. Her research interests include constructed and inherited identities; the history of paper, printmaking, and other information technologies; the phenomenology of communication and encoding meaning and messages within materials. // @c_clemgram

Tom Egan

Tom Egan has been a studio potter since 1993. His ceramic studies began at a community arts center and have continued through the years with international travel exploring pottery traditions and attending workshops with nationally recognized potters, including Warren McKenzie, Don Reitz, Paul Soldner, Ron Myers, Cynthia Bringle, Peter Volkous, Tom Coleman, Tom Collins, Michael Simon, Bill van Gilder, Kuroemon Kumano, and Ben Owen III. He currently maintains and operates his own studio with the use of various firing techniques including a stoneware kiln that he personally designed and built. He has attended woodfirings throughout the southeast and worked closely with artists to learn the intricacies of woodfiring. He led the Hambidge anagama firings for the last seven years, and in the last three years he has leading woodfiring workshops throughout the Southeast. He also gives talks on woodfiring, tea bowls as an introduction to the Japanese pottery aesthetic, and the importance of handmade objects in today’s society. He currently teaches pottery classes at the Sewell Mill Arts Center in Marietta, GA.  // @tomeganpottery

Sabre Esler

Sabre Esler is an Atlanta-based mixed media artist. Her work focuses on the architecture of thought, and she uses research from mathematics, neurology, and psychology to inform the patterns in her work. Her art has been showcased in exhibitions around the globe, including Art Basel Miami. Her works are in permanent collections at The Federal Reserve Bank, Ritz Carlton, Tufts University, and Hilton Hotels, among others. Sabre has a BFA in graphic design/illustration from Miami University, with a minor in biology, and an MFA in painting from Savannah College of Art and Design where she is an adjunct professor. // @sabreeslerfineart

Chad Hellem

Atlanta native Chad Hellem began working in the food service industry at age 13, helping his dad cater barbeque on weekends. His first ‘real job’ was in a grocery store, and since then, he has been the kitchen manager and experimental chef at a sorority house and interned in a parrilla steakhouse in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He also trained at the Hillstone Biltmore in Phoenix, Arizona in their restaurant management program. Chad graduated from the University of Georgia with degrees in supply chain management and Spanish, but his passion for food and people led him to travel Europe and subsequently join Local Three in Buckhead to continue his food journey. He has a strong interest in international cuisine and enjoys bringing smiles and fond memories to everyone he meets.  // @chadthefooddude

Tom Francis

Wisconsin born artist Tom Francis is Professor Emeritus of Painting at SCAD-Atlanta. He received his B.S., M.A. and M.F.A. degrees in Painting from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Francis’ paintings have been exhibited in museums and galleries throughout the United States and abroad, including the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis; The High Museum of Art in Atlanta; MOCA-GA in Atlanta; Montgomery Museum of Fine Art in Alabama; the Georgia Museum of Fine Art in Athens; the Columbia Museum of Art in South Carolina; the Ohr-O’Keefe Museum in Biloxi, Mississippi; Fay Gold Gallery in Atlanta; Sylvia Schmidt Gallery in New Orleans; KLIM Galleries in Toronto, Canada; and the Chapelle de la Sorbonne in Paris; Refectoire des Jacobins in Toulouse, France; and Palazzo Venezia in Rome; Westmont Museum of Art, Santa Barbara, CA. In addition, his work is in numerous private, public and corporate collections, including those of the Chase Manhattan Bank, Champion Corporation, Savannah College of Art and Design, Lorimar Productions, Disney Corporation, Coca Cola USA; the State of Georgia, and the State of Wisconsin. // @tom_francis_art

Jen Giersch

Jen Giersch works in textiles and loves to make ordinary things from repurposed materials. Inspired by her grandmother, a depression-era farmer, she has made a few social statements on an old canvas drop cloth. When asked why her work is so imperfect and uneven, she brilliantly skirted the truth by replying, “It is a metaphor for the way we pass judgment every day.”

Kaye Lee Patton

Kaye Lee Patton is a visual artist and graphic designer currently based in Atlanta, Georgia. Born in Seoul, South Korea as Lee Ko Won, she moved to the United States at the age of twelve, legally changing her name to Kaye Lee Patton. She is interested in the idea of culture and identity in relation to history, geography, and everyday materials. Before 2011 Kaye lived and worked as a branding and packaging designer in Chicago before moving to Atlanta to complete her MFA in painting from Savannah College of Art and Design. Her career as a graphic designer highly influences her work, as evident in the use of graphic shapes, typography and colors in her paintings, murals, and even in her paper makings. Her exhibits include Gathered: Georgia Artists Selecting Georgia Artists 2015 at The Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia (MOCA GA); WAP Apprentice Exhibition, MOCA GA in 2015, and other various group and solo shows in Atlanta and the Midwest since 2008. In 2019, Patton participated in Stacks Squares and Forward Warriors, both a community mural painting event in Cabbagetown, Atlanta.

Ciel Rodriguez

Ciel Rodriguez is a papermaker, letterpress printer, and book binder. She completed her BFA at the Art Institute of Chicago and is currently pursuing her MFA at the University of Georgia in printmaking and book arts. She is drawn to the book’s ability to be an intimate, personal space and views a book as a gathering of thoughts and reflections, a record, and a moment shared between author and reader. The physicality of Ciel’s prints, books and photographs allow viewers to experience intimate connections where things can bubble to the surface, if you let them. 

Ashley L. Schick

Ashley L. Schick works in printmaking and paper arts, inspired by the flora and fauna of her neighborhood walks. Her artwork has been exhibited nationally and internationally, has been installed in film sets, and is held in multiple private and university collections including Vanderbilt, University of Florida, Baylor, and the Renaissance Atlanta Airport Gateway Hotel. Schick was an artist’s assistant to sculptor Brian Dettmer and a resident in the Creatives Project’s Studio Program (2011-2013). She earned an MFA in Printmaking, where she also worked as the lead printer and constructor for Kiki Smith’s artist book Color Noise. She has completed studio work at Ballinglen Art Foundation in Ireland, the UF Paris Research Center in France, and at the Skopelos Foundation in Greece. Schick is an Upper School Visual Arts Faculty member at the Lovett School. She lives and works in Atlanta, GA. // @ashleylschick

Allison Shockley

Allison Shockley is an Atlanta based painter, sculptor, and drawer who has been exhibiting her artwork in Atlanta and beyond since 1998. Her emotive ink wash paintings seek to evoke the experience of the intangible, sensual worlds that we each have within us by capturing the essence of feeling through intuitive and expressive painting techniques. She is influenced by Japanese and Chinese brush painting, Expressionism, and the Wabi-sabi aesthetic. Allison is an assistant professor of art at Georgia State University Perimeter College. She has a BA in anthropology from Emory University, a BFA from the Atlanta College of Art and an MFA from the Savannah College of Art and Design. // @aparkershockley

aLICE STone-Collins

Alice Stone-Collins is an artist currently living outside of Atlanta, GA with her family. She earned her MFA in studio art from the University of Tennessee and has exhibited her work regionally and nationally. Throughout her career as an artist, Alice uses snapshots of her life, which explore various borders—home and leaving, loss and change, family and freedom. Asking questions of tradition and resistant to the ties that bind, her work questions if beauty can come from the mundane, the everyday. Currently, Alice is a faculty member at Georgia Gwinnett College in Metro Atlanta. // @alicestonecollins

Robert Thompson

Robert Thompson is a sculptor, printmaker, and fiber artist practicing in Fairburn, Georgia. The focus of his work is on tracing place. Through his papermaking process, he allows the fibers to reveal the significance of the locations of their sources. He can trace every paper he makes to a specific farm, market, or yard – an exciting journey that reveals the uniqueness of each place. Thompson is a recognized authority on plant fiber-based papermaking and has taught workshops throughout the southeastern United States, including the Salvador Dali Museum, Tampa Museum of Art, USF Botanical Garden, Florida Gulf Coast University, University, Agnes Scott College, West Georgia University, and the Gulf Coast Museum of Art. // @lot10paper