Mount Pleasant potter and filmmaker Maria White believes in the therapeutic power of pottery.
“To me, it makes so much sense that clay and mental health can work together,” said Maria White. “Sitting down at the wheel or just working with some clay in my hands can quickly help alleviate my anxiety in many cases.”
White spreads this mentality by sharing her knowledge of ceramic arts through her nonprofit, Mugs for Moms. It offers pottery classes and mental health resources for moms experiencing postpartum depression and anxiety.
White, who was born in Las Vegas but raised in Summerville, discovered her passion and talent for ceramics while pursuing an art degree from Winthrop University.
“I took a ceramics class and fell in love with it,” she said. “I called my dad and told him I wanted to be a potter and he said, ‘You want to be a what?’ ” she said.
She continued her artistic studies after graduating from Winthrop in 1998 by studying under sculptor Michael Sherrill, who is known for inventing Mudtools, a unique set of ceramic carving tools that potters all over the world use today. “I still have and use some of his very first tools,” she said.
She went on to assist him in teaching workshops and later created Michael Sherrill Retrospective, a documentary about his decades-long career as a potter. The film screened at the Renwick Gallery at the Smithsonian.
“I was and am fortunate to have a mentor that thinks outside of the box and encouraged me to do the same and challenge myself and push myself to explore whatever I’m passionate about,” she said.
Pottery and film
White kickstarted her professional pottery career after leaving Charleston for Los Angeles in 2001. During her time in L.A., she created pottery for high-profile chefs, interior designers, and movie and television sets. You may have spotted her work on the set of ’90s hit sitcom Friends, the 2005 movie Monster-in-Law starring Jane Fonda and Jennifer Lopez, and on the set of Academy Award-winning film La La Land.
She also made a name for herself as an independent filmmaker and co-founded the Los Angeles Women’s Film Collective to help empower female filmmakers. Now, she continues to dabble in filmmaking, often collaborating on projects with her filmmaker husband Matthew Mebane, who recently worked on The Righteous Gemstones series.
Art adorns many spaces in White’s home. | Photos provided
White relocated back to Charleston with her family in 2015. She is part of Studio Union pottery studio in Charleston and recently completed a six-week residency at the Gibbes Museum of Art.
She uses porcelain clay and 22K gold luster to create her current collection, which she describes as minimal and inspired by forms and textures she sees in nature.
“My pieces are made to be touched. I want people to pick them up and feel the textures,” she said.
Providing mental health support for moms
But White’s ceramics work extends well beyond her artistic career. She launched Mugs for Moms in 2019 with a fundraising event to benefit Postpartum Support Charleston.
The 2020 fundraising event was canceled due to COVID-19. So White began exploring other ways to fuse ceramics arts and mental health awareness.
“During the pandemic, a lot of people were asking me for clay,” she said. “People were going kind of crazy. They wanted to work with their hands. I realized how lucky I am to work with my hands and clay, so I thought, what if we created ways for moms — and anyone really — to do this.”
Mugs for Moms offers several ways for people in the community to get involved. The organization’s 2022 annual fundraiser is May 14. During the ticketed event, moms and other attendees will be able to sip coffee, eat small bites, explore mental health information tables, purchase pottery created by local ceramics artists and connect with others.
This year, Mugs for Moms will also offer an opportunity to sponsor a mug that will be delivered to a pregnant woman or a new mom as a gift along with information and resources surrounding maternal mental health.
“The idea is the mug goes out into the world and it’s a daily reminder of community and resources for someone who is struggling or if you’re struggling yourself,” White said.
Throughout the year, Mugs for Moms offers free ceramics classes called Muddy Meetups for moms to create something with their hands and connect with others having similar experiences.
“We want to offer our first class for dads, because I know for my husband in particular watching me struggle with mental health was really hard on him too, and dads often don’t have an outlet as well,” she said. “So, we want to be able to open it up. There are families with two dads or families with two moms, and we want to respect all kinds of families that exist in our city and provide an outlet and resources for them.”
During the Muddy Meetups, there is also a mental health professional present to help navigate discussions around mental health and parenthood.
White said she hoped to continue expanding the Mugs for Moms program in the coming year by offering additional classes and mug drops.
“It’s rewarding for everybody,” she said. “It’s exciting to see the connections they make during the meetups. And, it’s a way to learn to take better care of one another and in turn take better care of ourselves.”
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