Joseph Angelo has pots of love to share

Las Cruces potter Joseph Angelo has made nearly 1,000 bowls for the annual Empty Bowls fundraiser during the past 12 years.

Angelo has been a member for 10 years of The Potter’s Guild of Las Cruces, which sponsors the event to raise money for El Caldito Soup Kitchen, and he was Empty Bowls co-chair for the last six years. He’s made 100 bowls for each of the last six events, and is already well into this year’s production, he said.

“I feel Empty Bowls is a good way to give back to the community by doing something I enjoy,” Angelo said.

He said he started making pottery in college in 1973, as a student, work study and teacher’s assistant.

“I learned how to throw pottery, make glazes, build kilns and fire pottery,” Angelo said. “After graduating, I stopped due to lack of equipment. I started again in Las Cruces in 2007, joined the Potter’s Guild in 2008 and have been throwing pots, making glaze and firing pottery since.”

Inspired by artist Rose Cabat (1914-2015; called a “studio ceramicist”), Angelo said his favorite pottery to make is a design that Cabat called “feelies.” “My version is round with a spout on top,” he said.

Angelo has been involved in some form of art since he was in high school.

“I create pottery, metal art, jewelry, lampwork (glass), leatherwork and oil painting,” Angelo said. “Pottery, however, is my favorite and most challenging.”

Angelo has a 240 square-foot clay studio in his yard, which includes three electric kilns and two gas kilns.

“I fire low-fire (Raku, Horsehair, Obvara), mid-fire, oxidation and reduction (mostly functional pottery i.e., bowls, mugs plates) and I fire high-fire, both oxidation and reduction to cone 10,” he said. “The cone 10 is usually functional as well.”

One of his electric kilns is a very small jewelry kiln, he said.

“My wife, Ann, who also is an artist, and I host a small group of other potters two or three times a year, where we glaze an average of 500 bowls for the Empty Bowls project. I then fire all the bowls.

Instead of purchasing glazes, Angelo makes most of his own glazes from scratch, he said.

Angelo taught at the Gadsden Independent School District for 20 years and at Doña Ana Community College for 25 years, teaching welded art as well as functional welding. Angelo is a certified weld educator and inspector.

To see other examples of Angelo’s work, visit www.facebook.com/JoeAngelosArts.

For more information, contact Angelo at joeangelo66@comcast.net.