June Ambro, Pleasant Prairie
2024-25 RAM Artist Fellowship Award Recipient
Ceramic artist June Ambro is a Wisconsin native and lifelong resident. She has built her knowledge and artistic skills through a lifetime of attending every art class and workshop possible—from Maine to Montana, Fez, Morocco to Istanbul, Turkey. International travel has allowed Ambro a peek into how other cultures view the ancient art of ceramics. She credits her 2022 yearlong mentorship with the artist Liz Lurie for a much deeper and fuller understanding of this beautifully complex art form. Most days, you can find the artist working quietly and steadily in her studio, Orangedoor Pottery, in Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin.
Artist Statement
I am a maker.
from my earliest memories to the present,
I have practiced the art of making things. two dimensional,
three dimensional,
functional pieces
and sculptural objects.
Of late, I have dialed into clay as my main medium. I am heavily influenced by the Driftless Area of Wisconsin—rolling hills, farm fields and pastureland all interconnected to create an underlying pattern. Building with textured, stretched clay creates the rhythm and repetition I am seeking—a sense of movement, like the passing of time.
The genius of clay is that I can create a three-dimensional form with my hands—touching and manipulating the fresh raw material. By employing brushwork, drawing, sculpting, scratching, carving, slips, terra sigillata, and glazes I am able to build richly layered, nuanced surfaces. While atmospheric wood firing is the form of firing closest to my heart, I also enjoy experimenting with the results I can coax out of my electric kiln. Varying my methods of making results in new possibilities for each piece.
My intent when engaging with these various techniques is to imbue my objects with an inherent emotional charge—a sense of place and feeling—of nostalgia. I urge you to allow yourself to be transported from the familiar to the unknown on a visceral level as you explore my pots and uncover their many layers.
Each newly created piece informs the making of the next. As evidenced in this new body of work, I am forever pushing to explore new forms, surfaces, and firing processes.
June Ambro, Pleasant Prairie
2024-25 RAM Artist Fellowship Award Recipient
Photography: Camela Langendorf, Varitay Studios
Ceramic artist June Ambro is a Wisconsin native and lifelong resident. She has built her knowledge and artistic skills through a lifetime of attending every art class and workshop possible—from Maine to Montana, Fez, Morocco to Istanbul, Turkey. International travel has allowed Ambro a peek into how other cultures view the ancient art of ceramics. She credits her 2022 yearlong mentorship with the artist Liz Lurie for a much deeper and fuller understanding of this beautifully complex art form. Most days, you can find the artist working quietly and steadily in her studio, Orangedoor Pottery, in Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin.
Artist Statement
I am a maker.
from my earliest memories to the present,
I have practiced the art of making things. two dimensional,
three dimensional,
functional pieces
and sculptural objects.
Of late, I have dialed into clay as my main medium. I am heavily influenced by the Driftless Area of Wisconsin—rolling hills, farm fields and pastureland all interconnected to create an underlying pattern. Building with textured, stretched clay creates the rhythm and repetition I am seeking—a sense of movement, like the passing of time.
The genius of clay is that I can create a three-dimensional form with my hands—touching and manipulating the fresh raw material. By employing brushwork, drawing, sculpting, scratching, carving, slips, terra sigillata, and glazes I am able to build richly layered, nuanced surfaces. While atmospheric wood firing is the form of firing closest to my heart, I also enjoy experimenting with the results I can coax out of my electric kiln. Varying my methods of making results in new possibilities for each piece.
My intent when engaging with these various techniques is to imbue my objects with an inherent emotional charge—a sense of place and feeling—of nostalgia. I urge you to allow yourself to be transported from the familiar to the unknown on a visceral level as you explore my pots and uncover their many layers.
Each newly created piece informs the making of the next. As evidenced in this new body of work, I am forever pushing to explore new forms, surfaces, and firing processes.
Interview with the Artist, January 2025
Please share the basics of your art career thus far. Education, years working, etc. How long have you been a part of the Racine/Kenosha community?
Creating art has always been a significant part of my life. After a disastrous attempt at college life, I began forging a path of self-taught education—a collage of reading, visiting museums and galleries, taking classes, and jumping in on workshops whenever possible.
I have studied with several well-known ceramic artists over the last 10 years, the most impactful being Liz Lurie (New York.) In 2022, I began a one-year mentorship program with Liz which has had a profound influence on my perception of, and creating with clay. Being a ceramic artist who woodfires their work, another aspect of my educational experience has been traveling to various kilns throughout the United States to participate in group firings. These communal experiences are rich with the sharing of skills, knowledge, and ideas.
I am forever grateful to the community studios I was able to work out of, including Wustum’s clay studio! These spaces allowed me to work with clay before I had the means to set up my own studio. Being part of the Racine/Kenosha artist community for the last 40 years has allowed me to forge lasting relationships with many wonderful artists from the Kenosha/Racine/Milwaukee community.
Would you please describe your work—what materials you use, what subject matters you explore?
As of the last ten years, I would describe myself as an artist who works in clay, using various clay bodies and firing methods to create my forms. To the surfaces of these infrastructures I apply deep textures, clay schnibbles, terra sigillata, colored slips, textured slips, underglazes, oxide washes, underglaze pencil, and a wide array of glazes. In other words, whatever it takes.
My objects often have an inherent emotional charge. By moving them from the known to the unknown, I create a mystery that accentuates their metaphorical potential. My exploration of textured, stretched clay creates rhythm and repetition— a sense of movement, the passing of time. All of this to connect with/touch my viewer on a visceral level.
How often are you in your studio? Do you work outside of your studio much or at all?
Most days will find me working in my studio about 5 hours. Some days a little less, some days a little more.
Whenever possible, I get away from my own studio and together with fellow artists to make, and perhaps fire, work. The isolation of working alone in a studio is very real. Surrounding yourself with a supportive community is essential for mental wellbeing and for the exchange of creative ideas.
I have been giving myself “permission” to take time away from my studio, to spend time with my family and friends—to recharge. Keeping this balance is an ongoing struggle for me. My partner is incredibly supportive of my studio life—for this I am eternally thankful.
What inspires you most these days? But also what do you go to bed thinking about most nights?
Exploring the very essence of clay, the material, is what inspires me most these days. I have a basic working knowledge of what clay can do and what I can do with it, but am constantly delighted when we—clay and I—actually collaborate. Big magic!
I’m equally fascinated with what can happen to clay at 2300 degrees Fahrenheit in a woodfired atmosphere. True alchemy!
As I’ve gotten older, I feel a sense of urgency surrounding my making. A very real awareness of my own mortality, and of the instability of our own country. I could even take it a step further and add the instability of the world, but then I’d NEVER get to sleep. Although I don’t feel that my work addresses these issues in a literal sense, the darkness, complexity and hope are all there.
What does it mean to you to get recognition as a RAM Fellowship Award winner?
Being awarded one of four RAM Fellowships has allowed me to expand my level of making. As I’ve been creating a body of work for this show, I’ve made a bit of a shift in imagining what’s possible. More precisely, imagining a piece, sketching out that piece on paper and then figuring out how to physically build it (or not.) Knowing that others will be viewing it in a gallery setting really ups the game. With all of this forward motion comes the realization that I am not the artist I want to be—I’m the artist I can be.
I have applied to the fellowship more than once, so I am aware of feeling the sting of rejection. Actually being recognized as an award winner this year has given me a broader perspective on the perseverance it often takes to get to where you want to go. I hope my story and show can be an inspiration to other artists in the community considering applying for the 2026–27 RAM Fellowship Award.
Sample of Work
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