Holly Culpepper

Holly Culpepper has always had a creative fire inside her. “My love for clay stems from growing up on the Elizabeth River in Portsmouth, Virginia,” she says. “As a child, I would make mud pies, which evolved into sandcastles, and eventually cities for my toys to live in.” At seventeen, Holly watched a potter’s wheel demonstration. “I knew at that moment that I wanted pottery to be a part of my life,” she says. At eighteen, she got her start as a Performance and Production Potter at Busch Gardens Williamsburg. “That lasted a few seasons until I joined the Coast Guard where I was stationed in Sitka, Alaska for a couple years,” says Holly. After the conclusion of her enlistment, she attended college courses and joined community studios. “It always felt a little too regimented,” she says. “I always yearned for my own studio.” Six years ago, Holly took her creativity to the next level. “I was in a place where I could build my own studio,” she says. While she encountered many naysayers and skeptics citing financial obstacles and physical feats, Holly had made up her mind and stayed the course. “It took me a year to build and find all the equipment,” she says. “I now have a fully operational studio with several pottery wheels, kilns, slab rollers, and everything else I need.” Running her own studio affords Holly the versatility required to feed her artistic inclinations. “I can work as long and at any time I want,” she says. “Sometimes the mood strikes at midnight.” Holly has also learned a lot about her own abilities in her studio. Enlightened with each new kiln load, she says, “Pottery teaches you patience and problem solving. I learn something new each day about the nature of clay, different clay bodies, and the chemistry of glazes.” Holly’s tenure in St. Augustine was born of familial ties, the beauty of the beaches and city, and the allure of the eclectic arts community. “I have family in Virginia and the Florida Keys,” she says. “It puts me within a day’s drive of each.” Holly’s love of the ocean is unique and deeply personal. She even incorporates that love into her art. “I have completed over ten thousand miles of blue water sailing. I’ve gone up and down the east coast and throughout the Caribbean Sea,” she says. “The glazes I use for some of my work emulate the colors of the ocean. I incorporate turtles, shells, and fish into some of my pieces.” Holly’s abundance of passion compels her to share it with others. “I regularly teach wheel throwing classes at ‘Make Space’, a learning studio for adults and children in St. Augustine,” she says. Introduced to the High Tide Gallery by fellow member, Jackie Hird, Holly reflects with gratitude, “They appreciate my vision and enthusiastically display and sell my functional pottery,” she says. “It has been a wonderful relationship.” Holly’s artistry is as vital to her health as oxygen. “Time stands still when my hands are in clay. Pottery is my heart and soul.” She concludes, “I love everything from the labor to the enrichment I feel from the completion of a piece. I love the life I have built.”