Collection: Hayne Bayless - Featured Artist

Artist Statement:

The unintended result, too often misread as a mistake, is a fertile source of new ideas. The trick is not to get in the way of clay's inherent desire to express. The techniques of hand-building let me take advantage of clay's power to capture and reveal gesture. I'm intrigued by what happens when clay is rolled, stretched, pressed, bent, cut and put back together. I love what spawns in the friction between what I'd like the material to do and what it would rather do. 

 ~ Hayne Bayless, 2026

Bio: 

Hayne Bayless makes hand-built stoneware in Ivoryton, CT. Other than lessons from a potter in Tokyo and a handful of classes and workshops, he managed to avoid any formal instruction in ceramics. He abandoned wheel-throwing early on, preferring the freedom that hand-building offers.

Hayne’s interest in clay began in high school, where he came across a decrepit potter's wheel in a corner of the art room. The art teacher handed him Leach's A Potter's Book, and that became his guide. After a 12-year college career spanning five schools and seven attempted majors, Hayne emerged with a journalism degree. He was a newspaper reporter and editor in New Haven for 10 years. 

His interest in clay reemerged, and making pots began to take up much of his time outside the newsroom. He quit the paper in 1992 and several days later put out work at a churchyard craft show, where he sold three pieces.

Hayne has had the great fortune to be awarded the top prizes at two of the country's most important craft shows: the Smithsonian Craft Show and the Philadelphia Museum of Art Craft Show. He teaches workshops across the country and abroad.

Find Haynes Artaxis page: https://artaxis.org/artist/hayne-bayless/

Find Hayne's Instagram: @dhaynebayless