Potter just wants ‘to keep making s..t’

Ceramic artist Marita Green’s personality comes through in every ounce of her work.

Words like over-thinker and introvert sit quietly on keyrings, Frida Kahlo perches on plates, and profanities line the front of mugs.

The swear words are Green’s own and what the mugs have to say certainly won’t be everyone’s cup of tea.

‘‘I swear a lot, I think we are quite expressive creatures human beings and I think you know, why not express it,’’ the 50-year-old mum-of-two says from her New Plymouth studio.

‘‘I’m happy, and I just want to keep making s..t.’’

Green is one of 79 artists opening their studios later his month as part of the Taranaki Arts Trail.

For Green, who has been involved in the trail for six years, it’s her biggest sales event.

‘‘They had to really sell it to the artists because no-one wanted to open up because we’re all really introverted, private, we don’t like talking to people.

‘‘It’s partly why we express ourselves through our work so, at first I was really dubious.’’

The former naval officer has been doing pottery full-time for the last 10 years and recently started teaching clay work at Spotswood College and ceramics via distance learning through Otago Polytechnic.

Green stocks 10 galleries in

New Zealand, including Taranaki’s own Kina NZ Design + Art Space, however, doesn’t do retail herself.

She makes things that she likes, and for people like her, describing her work as light and fun and the process of making them as zen.

‘‘I spend more time in the studio than in the house.

‘‘You have to be nice to clay because it will fight back if you’re not.’’

Every mark on her work is done by hand and she says because of the way she works she takes twice as long as most potters to produce her pieces.

But then her mugs and plates and bowls aren’t just household items, they are pieces of art, she says. Especially when it comes to mugs, which people use every day.

‘‘A mug particularly is really intimate, like, your lips touch it a lot of times, way more than they probably touch your spouse.’’

The Taranaki Arts Trail is on October 28-30 and November 4-6.

VANESSA LAURIE/STUFF Marita Green is a Taranaki pottery artist and will be opening up her studio for the Arts Trail to display and sell her quirky, creative and unique mugs, plates, and other ceramic pieces.

VANESSA LAURIE/STUFF Every line on Green’s pieces are done by hand, which she puts hours of work in to.

VANESSA LAURIE/STUFF Green She finds the process of pottery very ‘‘zen’’ as you have to be kind to clay.