Marie DeVito
Newly arrived in Bennington, VT, New York City born-and-bred DeVito produces whimsical, functional, hand-built pottery designs that reflect the color and playfulness of a 15-year stint in Southern California.
DeVito’s passion for clay began as a collector while she explored other avenues of artistic self-expression, having been a cabaret singer in New York. Her move to Southern California in 1990 expanded her interest in ceramics as an art form not only to be admired, but to be created as well.
Enrolling at the Cahuenga School of Pottery (while keeping her day job as a talent agent!), DeVito experimented with wheel-thrown forms and high-fire stoneware glazes – but soon gravitated toward the broader range of color and shape that low-fire glaze colors and hand-built slab forms afforded her. DeVito’s pieces reflect her own eclectic background – combining bold, West Coast color with sensible, East Coast practicality, a pleasing marriage of freedom and function.
When her passion for creating ceramics overtook her passion for show business, DeVito hit the road, touring the US and Europe for a year, getting artistic inspiration and input from the broadest possible cultural spectrum, before settling with her writer husband in Bennington, long a mecca for pottery enthusiasts.
Says DeVito, “My goal is to put a smile on someone’s face when they see my work. I want people to want to reach out and touch them, and to feel good about using them. If I’ve done that, I feel I’ve succeeded.”
All of DeVito’s functional pieces are fired with food-safe colors.
Though they can withstand high heat, she recommends hand-washing them, and keeping them out of the oven.