Wesley Smith’s journey in clay began on the South Cumberland Plateau in Sewanee, Tennessee, during his junior year at St. Andrew’s-Sewanee School. It was there—under the guidance of two formative teachers, Burki Gladstone and Claire Reishman—that he first learned to throw pots and fell in love with the discipline. He credits these early mentors with setting him on the path he continues today.

At The University of the South, Wesley’s practice widened in scope. While studying Environmental Arts and Humanities, he pursued pottery independently, working from basements, backyards, and porches. During this time, he encountered the writings of the Transcendentalists along with Buddhist and Daoist philosophers—voices that quietly underpin his aesthetic sensibility and contemplative approach to craft.

More recently, Wesley spent three years apprenticing with Joseph Sand, a master of wood firing and former apprentice of Mark Hewitt, just outside Seagrove, North Carolina. Living in a cabin on the pottery grounds, he threw thousands of pots, refined his sense of form, and deepened his knowledge of wood-fired kilns and wild clays. His time in Seagrove included working alongside a number of esteemed artists, including Mark Hewitt, Daniel Johnston, and David Stuempfle. Since completing his apprenticeship, he has served as a production potter at Mud Dabbers Pottery in Brevard, all while continuing to woodfire with regional artists and communities whenever possible.

Wesley’s work is rooted in a devotion to handcraft and an intimate relationship with raw, natural materials. He believes that functional pottery—when made with intention—can serve as a subtle, ongoing reminder of origin: of earth, labor, and interdependence. His process often involves harvesting wild clays, firing in community, and engaging critically with tradition. The vessels he creates are meditations on material presence, ecological connection, and a quiet resistance to a culture of haste and disposability.

May his pots invite a pause—an invitation to consider where things come from, and what it means to live in reverence with the land.