By Patricia A. Scheyer
NKyTribune reporter
Marti Luken-Mocahbee has been making pots since she was 16 years old.
Born and raised in Cincinnati, she attended school in the public school system, except for one year that she attended a parochial school. One very formative year.
“I was introduced to all forms of art,” Luken-Mocahbee said. “I played with pottery, and it was definitely an ‘aha!’ moment.”
She did get a job at a pottery place, just to be around the craft, but when she went to college at University of Cincinnati, she didn’t specialize in fine arts or pottery because the professor had just given away all his pottery wheels.
So she majored in healthcare and became a nurse.
Life intervened, and she married, became a mom, and moved to Central Virginia and then to North Carolina.
“During that time, I refer to myself as a ‘director of life forces’,” she said with a laugh.
“Once the last child was off to college, I decided to go full time with the craft I love.”
Luken-Mocahbee moved back to this area and settled in Campbell County. She said she didn’t have a full studio until later, when she quit nursing and settled down to create.
“It’s all I want to do,” she stated simply.
She works in her own studio now, which is about the size of two bedrooms, and she has two kilns.
“I like to work currently in porcelain,” Luken-Mocahbee said. “Ninety percent of my work is on the wheel. I like stone and earthenware too.”
She is among 28 Kentucky artists who were recently accepted into the Kentucky Crafted program.
She explained that her pots are functional, but they are also decorative. She takes time with her brush work, because she knows what she wants, and if it takes time, so be it. The end result is stunning. Her usual pieces are bowls, lidded jars, and teacups, but she doesn’t limit what she can do, and considers all pieces.
“As far as my decoration, I have had many inspirations,” Luken-Mocahbee said. “At the moment I am very organically inspired, I gain inspiration from trees, and flowers and things from nature. It isn’t an easy thing to try and translate the image I want but put it in a round form, without distorting it. It is a real challenge to try to make the design make sense in a different way, but still have the imagery be representative of things you see in nature. For instance, within a tree I might have a flower. It has to be aesthetically good, and then I feel good about it.”
She said her design quality is what makes her pieces unique, and she said that her design quality is who she is.
Luken-Mocahbee said she worked with guilds and organizations when she lived in North Carolina and Virginia, and she wasn’t sure how to go about getting affiliated with those groups in Kentucky, until one Summerfair event, where she met a young leather worker, who she said was a ‘wealth of information.’
“It took a long time to find answers, but from there I was able to put in applications to professional organizations,” she said. “Then I found Kentucky Crafted and they were extremely helpful. This is an organization that has state sponsors. They have a show in March, and I can get grant information from them, as well as workshops and show information. It was a great honor to be accepted into Kentucky Crafted. Only 28 people were chosen, and I was one of them.”
She was able to find places that sell her kind of clay, and at this time she is comfortable where she is in her craft, and how she is connected with other artists. She is looking forward to the show in March, and letting other people see how beautiful her pottery is.
“I like to keep my hands busy,” she said. “I don’t really have a deadline – how long it takes, is how long it takes. My design is me, it’s who I am. It is a good life strategy.”