Just Goats Pottery

During the pandemic, I started making pottery exclusively featuring goats. It has now become a serious artistic pursuit and a small business, allowing me to connect with farmers and goat-lovers around the world.

People often ask me, why goats? I don't actually have goats, nor did I grow up with goats. My pottery journey started as an entertaining retirement idea, where I'd quit my life as a scientist and retire into the desert to exclusively make goat pottery to manifest the joy and irreverence I love in this world through goats. Then I found myself continuously talking about this idea to the point where it made me wonder, maybe I'm onto something? In the summer of 2020, I entered the Allied Ceramics Studio in Fair Oaks California with one idea in mind: I'm here to make goat pottery.

My first round of pieces were not particularly impressive, but I continued to iterate. This was around the time I decided to leave academia, and I felt like I could transfer my approach and habit of iteration that I honed in on as a bench scientist to my pottery. I kept making changes and trying different 'experiments'. Eventually, I found a shape of mug that worked, and realized that I could lean on my many years of practice and training in painting to paint the goats onto the mugs. I now have an online store (justgoatspottery.com) and attend local art fairs when I can. I also take custom mug requests from goat owners, which is tremendously fun for me.