MOLLY HATCH

Which came first: the paintbrush or the pottery wheel? “Definitely the paintbrush,” artist and designer Molly Hatch says. “My mother was a painter; my grandmother, even my great-great-grandmother had sketchbooks.” As Hatch’s work evolved, she began plying her painting skills on ceramics—you might know her blue-and-white “Icon” mugs for Anthropologie. The Massachusetts artist’s latest venture is commissionable still lifes composed of hand-painted plates, such as the Memorandum wall installation, above left. “It breaks down the pretensions of art and gives room to reinterpret objects,” she says. “Everyone understands how we live with plates, but here plates act as a painting.” (mollyhatchstudio.com)