Melissa Merli visits with Tom Brewer, owner of Griggs Street Pottery in Urbana. Studio Visit appears first in print, in Sunday editions of The News-Gazette.

Q: When did you buy the Griggs Street Pottery here in Urbana?

A: Two years ago this December.

Q: Do you plan to move here?

A: I'm sort of transitioning up. This year I've probably spent six weeks here, off and on, in one- and two-week stints. Betsey Cronan (former Griggs Street Pottery owner, who died in 2009) always had a holiday sale, and I wanted to continue the tradition. This is my second as the new owner.

Q: Do you plan to eventually live permanently here, in the apartment above the pottery?

A: I'll probably do the standard snowbird stuff. There's a renter there now. I think owner-occupancy and being able to live upstairs and work downstairs is the perfect combination for me.

Q: Are you originally from around here?

A: Yeah. I graduated from Champaign High School in 1967 — that was the last year Champaign had one high school. It became Centennial and Central the following year. Thelma Fite was my art teacher. She was instrumental in finding a path for me that I was interested in. It was ceramic sculpture then — like busts.

Art teachers tend to do that for kids. Teachers do, period, but art teachers — when kids were asked who made the biggest impression on them in school 60 percent say the art teacher.

Q: What did you do after graduating?

A: I went to Parkland College, then I went to Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. I had a dual major in art education and ceramics. Then I worked pretty much after that as a full-time potter here. I lived in Ivesdale and Sadorus and I had a nice little gallery, the Locust Street Gallery, here from 1980 to '82. Jack Baker owned the property.

Then I started teaching in '82 at Cowden-Herrick. It was a K-12 position. I had all the kids in the small, rural district.

Q: How long did you teach there?

A: For two years. Then I came back and did my master's in art at the University of Illinois, with a studio emphasis. I worked with Don Pilcher, but I also had a painting class. It was good. I graduated in '85 and went to Florida and taught at Tarpon Springs High School for one year then went to Florida State University and started my doctorate in art education in '86 and graduated in '89.

Then I spent three years on a visiting assistant professor line at the University of South Carolina. Then I went for three years to the University of Arkansas-Little Rock and two years at Southern Miss in Hattiesburg. Since '96 I've been at the University of Central Florida.

Q: Do you teach ceramics?

A: I teach future K-12 teachers. I teach some clay. Mostly it's curriculum planning. We do a lot things with assessment, classroom management and behavior skills.

Q: Why did you choose to specialize in ceramics?

A: I think it started when I was going to school at SIU when I was in art education. You had to take a wide variety of courses. In the ceramics part of the curriculum, things really took off for me. I had one piece in an exhibition at SIU and that was a nice little success.

Then I came back up and worked with Gary Perkins at his studio in Monticello. I've taught ceramics at all those universities, at some level, though.

Q: What kind of ceramics do you do?

A: Mostly wheel-thrown and altered pieces. I would say it's functional and sculptural. I really started with sculptural in high school and I've kind of gone back to doing that work, more portraiture-type things. I have a studio at home in Florida and this studio now. Most of my sculptural work is at the studio in Florida.