Nicole Copel
Nicole Copel Ceramics
La Veta, Colorado
Nicole Copel’s ceramic artwork focuses on arrangements, groupings, and stacked sets. In her series “Stacked Vessels,” these pieces rely on their interdependence. How we as people interface and interact with one another, as well as build upon and grow from our interactions are ideas that inform her work.
The potter’s wheel is a tool that Nicole uses to create forms that are then frequently altered through removing areas of clay to enhance movement and flowing lines. The surfaces of her porcelain pieces are often decorated using both muted and bright colors, layered glazes, or a wax resist method that creates a slightly raised and textured surface. Nicole uses a variety of firing techniques including reduction, and soda firings, but primarily fires her work in an oxidation atmosphere resulting in bright clean colors that emphasize the forms and articulate the areas of surface treatment.
Nicole received her MFA in Ceramics from Kansas State University under distinguished Professor Yoshi Ikeda. She has since lived in La Veta, Colorado, where she works in her ceramics studio, is co-owner of La Veta Gallery on Main. As adjunct art instructor since 2006 at Colorado State University in Pueblo, she has instructed ceramics students from beginners to graduate students. She also teaches kids' classes, workshops, and private lessons. In La Veta, Nicole volunteers with the Spanish Peaks Arts Council, serving on the board, gallery committee, and annual fundraising events.
For the past three years, Nicole has traveled with a team of ceramic artists to Port-au-Prince, Haiti, to teach pottery- making skills to employees of an art-based, socially conscious business called Papillion Enterprises.
