Meet the Team

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: Coming Soon!

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: 6 Week Monday Night Intro Wheel

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

Ceramic Artist She/Her

Amanda has earned a Bachelor of Arts in Studio Art and a Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology from Central Washington University. Afterward, she pursued Post-Baccalaureate study in Ceramics at the University of Montana. She has been an artist-in-residence at several arts organizations across the country, including The Morean Center for Clay in Saint Petersburg, Florida, and Belger Crane Yard Studios in Kansas City, Missouri.

Teaches: Try-It Wheel Workshops and 4 Week Next Steps: Teapots

See Amanda’s Work: aburypottery.com

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 Workshop

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: Nerikomi Classes and Workshops (Coming Soon!)

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

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 under the guise Sugar Cookie.

We’re Hiring

✨We’re currently hiring teachers for youth clay and 2D art classes.

✨We’re also looking for a studio tech!

If you’re interested, please send a resume and some examples of your work to hello@specklestudio.com. Include which role you’re applying for in the subject line.

We look forward to hearing from you!