A Studio Built on Mud and Meaning
Walk down Hawthorn Lane on a weekday afternoon and you might hear the low hum of a pottery wheel coming from an unassuming brick building. Inside, you'll find Maya Oduya — hands deep in clay, radio playing softly — surrounded by drying bowls, vases, and sculptural forms in various stages of completion.
Maya has been working as a ceramicist in Highland City for over a decade. What started as a solitary studio practice has grown into something far larger: a community learning space, a gathering point for local artists, and a quiet anchor in the city's creative landscape.
Finding the Wheel
Maya didn't come to ceramics through formal art school. She was working as a graphic designer when a friend invited her to a beginner pottery class at the old community center on Oak Street.
"I didn't think I was going to like it," she admits with a laugh. "I'm a very controlled person. Clay is deeply uncontrollable. But something about that — the fact that it pushes back — completely hooked me."
She threw herself into learning the craft, eventually apprenticing under a master potter who had a studio outside the city. After two years of intensive study, she returned to Highland City and rented her first proper studio space.
The Work Itself
Maya's pieces are known for their earthy tones, organic forms, and subtle surface textures that evoke the natural landscape around Highland City. She works primarily in stoneware, firing in both a gas kiln and a wood-fire kiln she built with help from local volunteers.
Her functional work — mugs, plates, serving bowls — is available through her studio and at the Highland City Artisan Market. But it's her sculptural series that has drawn wider attention, including a piece acquired by the Regional Arts Collection last year.
"I don't separate the functional from the sculptural in my mind," she says. "A bowl that someone uses every morning at breakfast is part of their life. That's not a lesser thing."
Teaching as Practice
About five years ago, Maya opened her studio to community members looking to learn. What started as a few weekend classes has grown into a full schedule of workshops for adults and youth, often at subsidized rates to make access possible for everyone.
She's particularly proud of a long-running partnership with a local secondary school, which brings students into the studio for a semester-long ceramics elective.
"When a 14-year-old makes their first functional bowl and realizes they built something that works — that matters — you can see something shift in them. That's worth everything to me."
What's Next
Maya is currently developing a new body of sculptural work exploring themes of migration and rootedness — drawing on her own family's history as well as conversations with other Highland City residents. The series is slated to be shown at the Meridian Gallery early next year.
She's also fundraising to expand the community studio space to include a second wheel room, which would allow larger group workshops and collaborative residency projects.
How to Connect
- Studio visits: Open by appointment — contact Maya through her website
- Workshops: Check the Highland City Arts events calendar for upcoming community classes
- Artisan Market: Maya sells work at the monthly market in Civic Plaza
- Commissions: Available for custom functional ware and sculptural pieces
In a city with no shortage of creative talent, Maya Oduya stands out not just for the beauty of her work but for her commitment to making sure ceramics — and the community that surrounds it — keeps growing.