About

 

Courtney Hamill is a ceramic artist living outside of Athens, Georgia.

Her journey with clay began unexpectedly in college when, on a whim, she took an elective ceramics class. By the end of the semester she had become captivated by clay, and spent the next year and a half of her college tenure taking as many studio classes as her schedule would allow. After graduation, she moved to Floyd, Virginia to live and work as an apprentice to Donna Polseno and Rick Hensley of 16 Hands. 

After her apprenticeship, she stepped away from working with clay for several years but always felt the call back to the studio. In 2012, she left a full time job to found Honeycomb Studio in a small backyard studio in Atlanta. Working primarily in porcelain, she developed a clean, modern aesthetic that has been collected internationally through private and corporate commissions, and featured in national design publications. After a decade-long professional studio practice that has existed at the intersection of commercial and fine art, she has recently shifted back toward creating one-of-a-kind pieces that blend her signature contemporary design with Southern folk traditions, including modern interpretations of classic face jugs. Additionally, she participates in wood firings in partnership with the ceramics community in the Athens area, and am a founding member of the newly created Athens Clay Trail.

Courtney's work has been seen and celebrated in Southern Living, Garden and Gun, InStyle Magazine, Dwell, and many others national publications.

 

ARTIST STATEMENT:

Courtney Hamill’s current work explores the intersection of tradition and contemporary expression. Inspired by the rich history of face jugs, a motif found across cultures and centuries, she reimagines these forms for a modern sensibility, blending sculptural narrative with functional elements. Each piece is an exploration of personality, emotion, and cultural memory, rendered in a clean, contemporary aesthetic that emphasizes form, line, and surface. By honoring the folk origins of the face jug while pushing the boundaries of material and design, Hamill creates objects that are both familiar and unexpected. 

Hamill’s work is informed by craft traditions, but it is deeply rooted in contemporary art practice, and straddles the line between utility and sculpture. Through her reinterpretations, she seeks to spark reflection on how cultural motifs travel through time, evolve, and remain resonant in a contemporary context.