Art Space

Attention: open in a new window.

To see a video of Smith and Cohen click on image above.
By Donna L. Hull • Photography and Video By Jennifer Polixenni Brankin

Clay creations— pots, plates, teapots, funeral urns — in different stages of production fill the room. Dust lingers in the air. Cabinets fronted with glass hold finished teapots while plates decorate the kitchen countertop. A kiln sits in the spacious garage. Welcome to the home of Gail Smith and Leonard Cohen.

When the two former doctors moved from Philadelphia and built their retirement home near Marana, they included an uncommon element in the home’s design, a room dedicated to making crafts. The room, which evokes thoughts of a school art space, now serves as a place for the two to pursue their passion for pottery.

Cohen specializes in plates, cups, and tea balls — “the stuff that we keep and use,” says Smith — while Smith prefers cylinders, covered jars, teapots and vases.

Smith, who is on a mission to complete 100 teapots, finds such relaxation from being in the studio that she doesn’t even mind breaking her pieces to start again, claiming, “It’s very therapeutic to break them.”

Pottery so dominates their lives that when the couple isn’t in their home shaping clay, they can be found attending regular studio courses at Pima Community College. Their love has even spilled over to vacations that include studying with potters in France and Spain. Last year, the couple traveled to the Pyrenees and met English potter, Alan Baxter. “I didn’t love his work, but I learned a lot. Everybody I study with has taught me something,” she says. More recently, a road trip to the Seagrove area in North Carolina, a hotbed for potters, netted them a large pot by David Stuempfle, now at home in a corner of the couple’s front patio.

Most of the time though, you’ll find Cohen and Smith at home in their studio listening to an iPod, hands muddied with clay.

To see a video of Smith and Cohen click on image below.

Set as favorite

Bookmark

Email This

Comments (0) Add Comment