Artist and Studio Owner She/Her

Holly is a Bay Area teaching artist and studio owner. She has exhibited in Los Angeles, New York, England, and the Bay Area. She studied painting and drawing at The San Francisco Art Institute and San Francisco State. Her creative work has led her to work with The Crucible, Root Division, Streetside Stories, SFUSD, The San Francisco Art Education Project and Southern Exposure. Holly also does consulting for visual artists looking to explore clay. Her past clients include Jenny Sharaf.

See Holly’s Work: hollycoley.com

Ceramic Artist He/Him

Living and working in San Francisco, Alex teaches at several local studios as well as running his own ceramics business, ABC Ceramics.

Teaches: 6 Week Next Steps Wheel

See Alex’s Work: alexbeckceramics.com

Ceramic Artist She/Her

A ceramic artist living and working in SF. She has exhibited at San Francisco Art Fair, Glass Rice, and re.riddle. She recently hosted her first solo exhibition, Return to Form, at Marrow Gallery. She teaches intermediate and advanced wheel throwing classes throughout the Bay Area.

Teaches: Throwing Large Workshop & Adult Intro Wheel: AM

See Anna Grace’s Work: annagracenwosu.com

Wood Worker and Ceramicist He/Him

Our favorite hand building teacher and wood worker. Paul has worked for the SF Recology Artist Residence program and lives and works in San Francisco.

Teaches: 6 Week Hand Building

Ceramic Artist She/Her

Yuki is a ceramic artist and instructor in San Francisco, CA. Growing up in Japan, Yuki was always fascinated by a sense of genuine, natural beauty that is situated in quietness/serenity. Working with clay gives Yuki that space of peace and a state of “mu (無)” (a quiet emptiness). Yuki's work honors the place Yuki resides, brings out the history and beauty of the geology, and creates a way for viewers and users to connect with the environment. Yuki strives to stop our time to create space for people to experience inner tranquility and transcendence through light, shadow, texture, pigments, and flame.

Teaches: Adult Intro Wheel Classes & Try-It Wheel Workshops

See Yuki’s Work: etsy.com/shop/EatWithUrEyesPottery

Painter He/Him

Aaron was born & raised in the Bay Area and has been a Bernal Heights resident for the past 16 years. His art training began at UCLA as a fine art major and continued through the years at various workshops, including painting instruction at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena and classical drawing training at Sadie Valerie Atelier.

His paintings are primarily inspired by the way light plays out over urban landscapes, particularly around Bernal Hill, which has been Aaron’s muse for several years. He also paints plein air scenes and portraits.

Aaron has had several painting shows over the last 12 years at Inclusions Gallery on Cortland. Most recently he was included in the de Young Open where he exhibited a portrait. Aside from painting, he also enjoys making large sidewalk chalk drawings on Bocana Street which many Bernal neighbors are familiar with.

Teaches: Paint & Sip Workshops

See Aaron’s Work: aaronzube.com

Ceramic Artist She/Her

Katie is a San Francisco-based ceramic artist who specializes in the intricate art form of Nerikomi. Her work embodies a harmonious blend of colors, patterns, and textures reflecting the vibrant energy of the city she calls home.

Teaches: 6 Week Nerikomi Madness

See Katie’s Work: shadyclay.shop

Ceramic Artist, Painter She/Her

Born in Hayward, Ellena has been painting and creating in clay for over ten years. She works in oil and watercolor, painting internal and external landscapes in combination with emotion and history. Re-indigenizing how we view land and our interactions with the natural world, her paintings are an extension of their body and her body is an extension of the land.

Ellena graduated in the spring of 2021 from the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa with a Bachelor's in Fine Art with a focus in painting and a minor in Gender and Sexualities. She has been working all over the East Bay as a teaching artist since 2022, working with students aged 2-16. She has shown her work in various galleries, including the Mission Cultural Center in San Francisco, Wailoa Center in Hilo, and the HPU Kaneohe Gallery. She is currently a studio artist at Root Division in San Francisco.

Teaches: Crafternoons & After School Youth Programs

See Ellena’s Work: ellenaruiz.com

Artist He/Him

Matt Borruso lives and works in San Francisco. He has had solo exhibitions at La Mofeta, Et al.etc., Cloaca Projects, Steven Wolf Fine Arts, and 2nd Floor Projects in San Francisco, and at Black Ball Projects in Brooklyn. He has participated in group exhibitions at Public Access, Anna Kustera, and Derek Eller, New York; Et al. etc., 1599fdt, and House of Seiko, San Francisco; Sister, Los Angeles; Celaya Brothers, Mexico City; and Exile Projects, Berlin. Since 2015 he has published under his imprint Visible Publications, and his books are in the library collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and the International Center of Photography. Between 2006 and 2022 he taught at Stanford University, the San Francisco Art Institute, and the California College of the Arts. Borruso received his MFA from Yale University in 2004 and his BFA from the San Francisco Art Institute in 2002.

Teaches: 4 Week Intro to Drawing

See Matt’s Work: mattborruso.org

Ceramic Artist and Educator

Tori is an SFUSD 4th grade teacher who took up ceramics as part of a teacher wellness initiative in 2023. Over the past three years, she has been teaching ceramics part-time to both adults and children at various studios. In her free time, she loves to create wheel-thrown functional pieces like vases, mugs, and bowls with unique color combinations and surface design techniques. You can find her work at Mission Blue Cafe in Visitacion Valley. 

Teaches: Summer Clay Camps

See Tori’s Work: instagram.com/dartmouthpottery

Artist She/Her

Elise is a Ukrainian-American potter, painter, and film photographer based in San Francisco. She has been working with clay for over five years and painting for nearly 10. Heavily inspired by her heritage, Elise’s pottery focuses on organic shapes, hand-painted illustrations, and glaze patterns that reflect and uplift Ukrainian culture. Previously, she worked at SFUSD's newcomer high school where she led the after-school arts program, creating murals, coordinating intercultural showcases, and teaching multimedia art to teens. Outside of her creative practice, Elise currently works as a journalist in the Bay Area.

Teaches: Adult Intro Wheel

See Elise’s Work: pomegranatepottery.com

Ceramic Artist She/Her

Jan is a Chinese American artist based in San Francisco, working with analog media and craft. Their practice centers slow, tactile processes that explore memory, material, and our relationship to the natural world. With a background in science research and environmentalism, their work is guided by a deep curiosity about how materials transform, often drawing from research and lived experience. Responding to extractive systems, Jan creates small rituals of care that reconnect us to nature as kin, preserving fleeting moments and everyday forms through observation, experimentation, and intuition. 

Teaches: Summer Clay Camps

See Jan’s Work: instagram.com/wh0jan

Studio Technician She/Her

Elizabeth is a ceramics artist born and raised in the East Bay area. She has been working in clay for over 5 years and is inspired by Venus figurines, ceramic history, and the natural earth. Earning an AA in Fine Arts from Diablo Valley College and a BA in Studio Arts from San Francisco State University, she is passionate about creating open and accessible workspaces for artists of all backgrounds. 

See Beth’s Work: ethompsonartwork.tumblr.com

Assistant Manager She/Her

Loretta is a community-minded writer and artist whisperer. Recently, she kept shop at Holly Coley's New Classic Gallery + Shop in Noe Valley. She comes with a background in studio management from Oakland-based printmaker People I've Loved and goth candlemaker Burke & Hare Co., as well as marketing experience as a copywriter for sustainable shoe brand Allbirds. Outside Speckle, she writes speculative fiction and provides freelance digital design, upkeep, and marketing services for Bay Area artists. You can reach her at events@specklestudio.com!