Hollis Engley of Mashpee is a Martha’s Vineyard native. He is a 1964 graduate of the island high school, 1966 graduate of Cape Cod Community College and a 1969 Political Science graduate of Lycoming College in Williamsport, PA.
Mr. Engley worked for 30 years as a journalist and photojournalist at newspapers on the Cape and Vineyard and in Santa Fe NM, then as an editor and reporter for a national wire service in the nation’s capital. He covered stories in Asia, Europe and across the United States.
He began making pots more than 30 years ago at the Torpedo Factory school in Alexandria, VA while working as an editor during the day. On the Cape he had his own studio in Falmouth, Hatchville Pottery, for several years. He then joined Kimberly Sheerin’s The Barn Pottery in Pocasset until 2024.
Since then he has been making pots here at the Falmouth Art Center, where he has taught pottery for several years.
Mr. Engley said, “I make functional pots, intended to be used in the home, largely influenced by Japanese and Korean pottery.”
He has fired in several wood-fueled kilns over the past 30 years, in Maryland, Pennsylvania, Colorado, New Hampshire and Massachusetts. For most of the past 20 years, he has been part of a great crew firing the Chris Gustin anagama kiln in South Dartmouth, MA. Also, he has been part of two recent firings of the new wood kiln at Micah Thanhauser’s Merry Farm Pottery in West Tisbury, on the Vineyard.
“A residency two years ago at Starworks in North Carolina introduced me to high-fire wild clay, clay dug from the ground and thrown on the wheel with minimal processing. I love the rough pots produced from that clay. Unrefined and elemental, they are often more sculptural than functional.
Many of the pots in this show are made from that clay,” he said.
Laura Edson Puopolo of Falmouth started out in the early 1980s photographing architecture and people with a hand-me-down Minolta.
She learned color theory and the value of experimentation while working for minimum wage plus unlimited printing at a one-hour-photo shop in Natick, MA.
She studied at the International Center for Photography in New York City, including classes in black and white film developing and printing, large format color printing, street photography and the history of photographic art.
One of her black and white photos was included in the 2002 Here Is New York exhibit at The Museum of Modern Art.
She is a frequent and enthusiastic contributor to local exhibitions, both juried and non-juried.
Her work explores a range of photographic styles and subjects, but one constant has been her passion for capturing the beauty, and sometimes, oddity of the commonplace. Her particular interests are spontaneity, uncommon angles, interesting juxtapositions, and minimally edited images.
