I am an artist and teacher. I earned my bachelor’s in art education in 1997 from Union University and my master’s in ceramic art in 2001 from Fontbonne University. I have been teaching art at various levels since 1997.
In the fall of 2014, a friend commissioned a stoneware platter and passed my name along to another friend who commissioned two bowls and two mugs. I couldn’t run my kiln with so few pieces, so I filled the kiln and Linden Tree Pottery began.
The linden tree reminds me of new life and beauty out of the earth. In the Spring of 1998, while living in Prague, Czech Republic, I visited the graveyard of the Terezin concentration camp while the lindens were in full bloom. This was the first time I had encountered the heavenly smell that is the linden blossom. That memory, thoughts, sights and smell combined, has stayed with me as a significant moment of realization that even in the midst of sorrow and wrongness there can be new life and beauty. It is my hope that my stoneware can be a reminder of the simple beauty that still exists in the world.
At the moment my studio is in my home and my studio hours are as I find time. I am selling my stoneware at various festivals around Indiana as well as at Etsy.com.
-Camela Johnson