Artist: Anthony Carrillo
Anthony Carrillo, IL
Artist Statement
I make playful pottery that is thoughtfully crafted and layered with great attention to surface, texture, and gesture. My work encourages intimate tactile relationships between pot and user through softness of form and surface detail. Pots that lean, sway and reach upward create a lively energy that invites interaction. Undulating rims, plump handle connections, raised bottoms, and applied textures are my way of creating spaces for idle fingers to explore. The dramatic surfaces achieved in wood firing can both highlight and quiet my applied textures. These varying surface marks create opportunities for discovery while examining each side of a pot. My most successful pieces display my investment in craftsmanship and invite the user to join me in material exploration and discovery.
Experience
● Assistant to Simon Levin in construction of train kiln, cut and laid brick, built arch, and facilitated a large group project, June 2025
● Designed and built a small soda kiln with two other apprentices, learned and implemented basics of kiln design in 3D computer model, August 2025 ● Participant firing Simon Levin’s anagama, 2024 and 2025
● Participant firing Simon Levin’s Train kiln, 4 time 2024-2025
● Licensed pottery seller city of San Diego, learned to market and sell work at local markets, 2023
● Private throwing instructor, gained teaching experience in beginner wheel throwing at home studio, 2018
● Created ceramic art commissions, 2017-2020, gained experience in skillful execution and client relationships.
Education
● Apprentice to Simon Levin at Mill Creek Pottery, 2024-Present
● Work Study Student, Penland School of Craft, “Good Pots for Good Food” with Dan Finnegan, 2023
● Enrolled at San Diego Mesa College majoring in Fine Art: Ceramics, 2016-2019
Shows
● Strictly Functional Pottery National, Lancaster Museum of Art, Juror: Mark Hewitt, 2025
● Student show at San Diego Mesa College Gallery for spring and fall semesters, 2018
Awards
● Penland School of Craft’s Texas Star Scholarship to attend their six week fall concentration, workshop lead by Dan Finnegan, 2023
● Honorable mention from the San Diego Potters’ Guild for work in fall student show at San Diego Mesa College, 2018
● Honorable mention from the San Diego Potters’ Guild for work in spring student show at San Diego Mesa College, 2018