By Marilyn Delk

DCCA News

Darke County, Ohio, where I live, borders Randolph County, Indiana, which harbors many artists and artistic endeavors; however, this column highlighting the arts in Darke County seldom covers these easily accessible and excellent creative resources. So I recently visited The Art Hub, located next to The Corner Cupboard in Union City, where many local artists display their creations. One of the excellent artists whose work is currently available at The Art Hub is potter Mary Boettger, who I first met when she was teaching Art at Mississinawa Valley School.

The Art Hub opened in 2015 at a location just up the street from its current space; that is also the year that Mary Boettger retired from teaching and started to devote her energies almost full time to producing clay pots. Mary earned her Bachelor’s degree in Art Education from Ohio State University, and a Master’s in Fine Arts with an emphasis in Ceramics from Ball State. She began her teaching career at Fairlawn in Shelby County, moved on to Bethel Tate in Claremont County, then to Nelsonville York in Hocking County, and Wellston City School in Jackson County before landing at Mississinawa in 1996; these moves were necessitated by her husband Steve’s career moves, which eventually landed him at Miller Lumber in Union City, where he is still employed.

At MV, Mary introduced students to the principles and elements of many artistic disciplines while teaching them about media, materials and techniques; she constantly did classroom demonstrations, resulting in many demonstration pieces lying unfinished as the class quickly moved on to the next subject to be covered. Mary says, however, that the unfinished clay pieces called her back, resulting in her taking those pieces home with her. “I couldn’t stop thinking about them; it was my entertainment,” she explains.

Although Mary is clearly enthusiastic about her work, she says that her favorite thing is teaching; and she believes that working with clay was a favorite art form for her students. “The kids loved working with the clay; they instantly discovered that they could be successful with it and soon knew that they were already good at it, so they didn’t really need to be in the class to succeed,” she said. At the same time that she was teaching at Mississinawa, Mary also taught classes at Arts Place in Portland, Indiana for over 10 years.

The former teacher believes that working with clay is the best of all worlds available to an artist. “It can be sculptural, it can be functional; I can do brushwork on it, draw on it, carve on it; it can remain monochromatic or become full color or anywhere in between; I can do other art forms and go so many different directions,” Mary explains. Mary has two kilns of different sizes at her home studio; she says that the second one doesn’t take as many pieces to fill and also acts as a back-up if something goes wrong with the larger kiln.

Mary has just completed a set of urns that will adorn a Cincinnati residence, but now simply and joyfully creates lovely pieces of pottery that she hopes others will enjoy. She can be contacted on Facebook or at [email protected], or by calling 765-584-2526.

But Mary’s creations are not the only works on display at The Art Hub; Kim Knox, a former co-worker of Mary’s who still teaches at Mississinawa Valley, creates striking jewelry from wire, stone and broken glass, sometimes using Mary’s broken pottery. Charming and sometimes whimsical metal sculptures by Joe Bond capture attention, as do sculptured wire trees made by Sherry Chandler of Celina. Other eclectic art includes the inventive work of The Gourd Sisters Sandy Butler and Bev Hotmire, the art quilting of Marilyn Stall, Tracy Barr’s soaps, Greg Behrens’ wood creations, and the more traditional artistry of Jean Selanders and Carol Sexton as well as many more excellent artists and crafters. The Art Hub is open Thursdays and Fridays from 11 a.m. till 5 p.m. and Saturdays from 10 a.m. till 2 p.m. Check it out!