These artists represent the creative abundance in our community
By Martha Zaytoun | Photography by John Michael Simpson
Belle Fleur Design
Randi Markowitz has been interested in art, color and texture since she was a child. It’s a passion she carried with her throughout her college years as a graphic design major at Buffalo State University, and then in a series of career moves – from MSNBC to the garment industry – that all revolved around graphic design.
In 2007, she founded Belle Fleur Design in Pittsboro. Randi specializes in creating cohesive brands for her clients, from designing their logos and websites to creating business cards, brochures and other branded items.
After an initial meeting with her clients and a detailed questionnaire to get a better sense of what they are looking for, she sits down and stares at a blank page.
“It’s somewhat intimidating at the beginning. But it’s also very exciting, because you never know what’s going to occur,” Randi says. “So I try to pull out the essence of who my clients are.”
She begins with the logo, which Randi believes is the nucleus of all marketing. The process varies with each client, but she usually draws a few sketches by hand before moving to digital tools like Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop or InDesign. Once she has created the logo and chosen the colors and fonts, Randi develops a style sheet that can be used by all of the vendors involved in creating branded products for her clients, from sign makers to T-shirt manufacturers.
One of Randi’s favorite projects was designing the logo for The Sycamore at Chatham Mills. The restaurant takes its name from the sycamore tree that sits on the property, which likewise inspired Randi’s logo design. “It’s very memorable, yet simple,” she says. “Logos do not have to be complicated to be effective.”
For Randi, seeing her designs around Chatham County is a satisfying part of her job. “I know how much work went into [the design projects],” she says. “It makes me happy to see them being used.”
While she enjoys working with a variety of industries, Randi particularly loves working with restaurants because it allows her to combine her passion for graphic design with her talent for food photography.
No matter the client, though, Randi says her favorite part of her job is creating a brand presence that helps a business achieve its goals. “I love living here [and] contributing to the graphic design aesthetic of Chatham County.”
Mark Hewitt Pottery
Mark Hewitt’s father and grandfather were manufacturers of fine china, an upbringing that nudged him toward making pots by hand while studying in his native England.
Following his graduation and the successful completion of an apprenticeship with celebrated English potter Michael Cardew, Mark left his home in England to begin another apprenticeship in Connecticut, where he gained a more nuanced understanding of pottery making.
While in the Northeast, Mark met and married his wife, Carol Hewitt, who oversees the administrative side of his business. Mark was drawn to the South for its local clay and the availability of wood to fire his kiln, as well as the inexpensive land and existing folk pottery tradition in the Seagrove and Catawba Valley areas. The couple moved to Pittsboro in 1983, establishing their home, studio and business on Johnny Burke Road.
While folk-inspired music is a more well-known export of the region, Mark says local decorative arts traditions are equally wonderful. “Once I started looking at some of the older pots [of the folk tradition], I found a wellspring of inspiration that continues to this day as I splice together aspects of the different regional North and South Carolina traditions,” he says.
These influences are heavily embedded in Mark’s approach and style, alongside research he has done on trips to England and Japan and his continual interest in international folk pottery practices. “It’s more a question of narrowing your influences rather than expanding them,” he says. “You’ve got to be very selective and careful, while always innovating and adding to what you already know. Otherwise, you end up getting stale.”
Mark’s research has inspired an extensive repertoire of pottery pieces, including his signature big pots, planters, jars, large vases and a range of fine tableware. His creative process begins with local North Carolina clay, which he shapes by hand on a potter’s wheel before adding decoration and glaze.
Mark can make about 150 mugs in a day, but his traditional firing process takes a bit longer. Inspired by a former mentor, Mark constructed a modified version of a 14th century kiln from northern Thailand. Shaped like an upside-down boat, the kiln is the size of a school bus. It holds all the pots that he makes during a “making cycle” and takes about five days to load; it takes another handful of days to successfully fire all of the pieces.
“I’m now 67, and in the last few years have been slowing down,” he says. “I have only two firings a year, not three, as before, and no longer take apprentices.” Two of his former apprentices, Lara O’Keefe and Stillman Browning-Howe, have established workshops in Chatham County.
In addition to making hundreds of pieces of pottery, Mark has curated two exhibitions on North and South Carolina folk pottery traditions at the North Carolina Museum of Art and the North Carolina Pottery Center. He’s currently working on an exhibition of his own work and that of six of his former apprentices, which spans 40 years of aligning regional traditions with that of Japanese folk art and contemporary studio pottery.
The “Thrown Together: Apprenticeship, Tradition and Individualism” exhibit will be on display at the National Council for Education at the Ceramic Arts Conference in Richmond, Virginia, in March 2024. “The interest that North Carolinians have in pottery, and the quality of the pots that are [made in] the North Carolina tradition, made it possible for me to gather some of the best examples of all of these older North Carolina potters together in one place.”
Mark is also a founding member of the Chatham Artists Guild and participates in the organization’s studio tour in December. “I always look forward to being part of this wonderful group of Chatham County artists,” he says.
Pittsboro Gallery of Art
Lee Kazanas had no intention of pursuing art. But one day, his roommate at State University of New York at Plattsburgh brought a handmade piece of pottery back to their dorm room. Lee was so inspired, he enrolled in his first ceramics class, switching to an undergraduate art major and then pursuing a Master of Fine Arts.
From there, Lee embarked on a full-time career as a studio potter. “That was a result of a passion,” he says. “It wasn’t a plan.”
For the first 20 years of his career, Lee sold his pieces in gift shops, galleries and department stores along the East Coast. After building up a client base in the Adirondack Mountains in upstate New York, Lee was able to sell his pieces almost exclusively in his own gallery. The change allowed him more flexibility regarding the kinds of pottery pieces that he could create.
“That meant I didn’t have to make a line of pieces [on] repeat and sell to a store,” he says. “I could go in all kinds of different directions and just put them in the gallery, and they would find a home.”
When he moved to North Carolina about 10 years ago, Lee toyed with the idea of retirement, but found he couldn’t stay away from the potter’s wheel.
“These days, I do a lot more carving and color experimentation,” he says. “I have a smaller kiln, so I can turn around glaze tests every two weeks or so. I can innovate with colors that I’ve never used before.”
That experimentation means Lee’s pieces evolve from year to year, promising surprises for those who embark on the Chatham Artists Guild’s tour each fall. A sampling of his work can also be found at the Pittsboro Gallery of Arts.
Recently, Lee has begun creating large garden totems. “They’ve been well received,” he says. “[It’s] fun because I get to work in a completely different scale. They’re often 5 or 6 feet tall.”
Semi-retirement has also given Lee more opportunity for leisure. “I work in my studio 6 hours a day instead of 8 or 10,” he says. “I also travel and spend time on Jordan Lake and try to enjoy life a bit more.”
Lee continues to find joy in pottery-making, too. “Even after 40 years as a potter, every time I open the kiln, it’s like Christmas morning,” he says.
ClayWorx Studios
The community at ClayWorx Studios is made up of instructors and students invested in one another’s successes, big and small. Founded in 2019 by Stan Cheren as Chatham Clay Studios, the space was always intended to be communal. “[It was] a place where anybody could come and act as if it was their studio,” says co-owner Jane Burgess.
When Stan passed away in 2021, it was up to Jane, Rachael Clemens and Debbie Englund to keep the studio running, so ClayWorx was born. “We’re a proud women-run business,” Jane says. “We put our heart and souls into it.”
“Maybe a little blood, sweat and tears, too,” Rachael adds.
Instructors offer eight-week classes as well as one-time workshops fit for all experience levels in a wide range of techniques.
Though people often associate pottery with wheel-throwing, ClayWorx also offers hand building classes, in which students roll out slabs of clay to make pinch pots or giant coil pots, platters and sculptural pieces.
Jane, Rachael and Debbie each bring specialized experience to their classes. Debbie teaches the fundamentals of hand building and wheel throwing to all skill levels. Jane’s classes often center on mastering beginning cylinders, while Rachael’s students learn to make functional ware that can be used for cooking and hosting parties.
“It’s exciting to see somebody start small and be able to build bigger and bigger and understand all the intricacies of building with clay,” Debbie says. “It’s not as easy as one might think; it doesn’t always behave the way you want it to.”
Even more important than successfully imparting pottery skills to their students is knowing they are building and fostering a community. “We support our students, but our students support one another,” Debbie says. For the current class schedule, visit clayworxstudios.com.
