Meet Lisa Bare | Potter/Owner of Bareclay Studio

We had the good fortune of connecting with Lisa Bare and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Lisa, how has your work-life balance changed over time?
Self-employment can be both a blessing and a curse when it comes to work/life balance. There are many days when I say I am taking the ‘day off’ and end up getting pulled into work just by opening my laptop. For many years, my business was a one-woman show, with no employees. I was constantly working. As my kids reached elementary school age, I realized I was missing a lot of my time with them because my studio runs opposite of the 9-5. I am open evenings and weekends and I wanted more time with my family.
Taking the risk of hiring out some of the work was a big step for me. It allowed me to have dinner with my kids every night. I was actually able to go on longer vacations with them and be off on weekends. I now have a trusted staff of artists and assistants who do amazing and varied work.
Now, as a single mom with one kid in college and one about to finish high school, I can look at their school years with gratitude for the awesome fun we have had thanks to my flexible schedule.
Artist-owned businesses can also get off balance when we spend all of our time making the business and not the art. My most recent balance-check has been putting more time into my own artistic pursuits.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I am a clay artist based and educated in Central Ohio. I started with pottery in high school (Thomas Worthington) and then continued my studies at CCAD earning a BFA in 1993. Ceramics has always been my primary medium, but I will often explore painting and mixed media and assemblages.
I think my recent work is easy to identify because of the detailed surface decoration I am currently interested in. I am very proud of the current body of worn and I have a new excitement for my tried and true medium.
My journey as a professional artist and business owner was not an easy one. When I graduated college, there were basically two paths forward for potters. One was trying to earn a living selling work, the other was to pursue a teaching career in academia or public schools.
By this point I realized that I wanted to do something that was a little bit of both. This was the moment when I knew I had to apply creativity to my daily work life. I had to create a job and career for myself exactly the way I wanted. I wanted to run a small pottery studio where all were welcome. No one would feel intimidated, and I could share the fun of ceramics with people of all skill levels and abilities. I had to invent the entire thing, from pricing, duration, programming and process from scratch.
So that is what I did.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I would spend a day at my studio on Lincoln Avenue hosting an amazing clay party. We would need to go across the street to the amazing Pizza House for an old school pie.
Since this visiting friend is into ceramics, I would run them down to my new favorite Short North ceramic gallery, Adamah Ceramics at Russell and High.
A day would be spent in Gahanna’s Creekside area including a visit to Collective Home Supply for vintage and fine art.
I would need to run them down to Hocking Hills for a day of nature love and a meal in Logan or Lancaster, maybe Athens?

Back in Columbus, I would wrap it up with a Clintonville day including vintage shops around Corner Stone Deli, where we would have a fantastic lunch.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
Huge shout out to my wonderful dad. He raised my sister and I on his own after my mom passed when I was 14. He fully encouraged me to be an artist even though he was a lawyer and a bookworm. Glen Bare, you are all the good stuff!!

Website: https://bareclay.com

Instagram: bareclay.studio

Facebook: Bareclay

Image Credits
Lisa Bare