Creating Community Through the Arts: It's Clay Time!
Join this free presentation on how creating The Pottery not only provided a venue for creativity, but fulfilled a need for community connectivity. Ceramics specialists Alecia Teague and Michelle Solorzano will discuss how their passion for pottery extends beyond the studio.
Alecia Teague holds a Master of Fine Arts degree from Edinburgh College of Art in Scotland, where she studied drawing and painting. Her love for pottery began in 2016, when she and her family moved back to the UK - in Sheffield, England. Here she took a year-long foundation pottery course and continued her education until she moved back to California in 2019. Upon her return, she opened a pottery studio in her house and taught various courses around town, including Studios on the Park in Paso Robles.
Alecia is not only an accomplished artist but also a devoted wife and mom of three. She understands the importance of creating a space where families can come together to learn, have fun, and create lasting memories. Alecia holds a teaching credential and has previous teaching experience at Cuesta College, where she shared her love for pottery with students of all ages. Alecia's passion for pottery extends beyond the studio, and she takes pride in being a part of the local community. She believes that pottery can be a powerful tool to bring people together, and she is dedicated to using her skills to give back to the community.
Michelle Solorzano is a figurative ceramic sculptor whose work explores themes of immigration, identity, and culture, blending personal experiences with broader historical and ancestral influences. Her art practice is deeply rooted in the complexities of bicultural identity and the layered legacies of colonization, drawing inspiration from her Dominican heritage shaped by Taíno, African, and Spanish influences. Michelle will be exhibiting her artwork here in the Studios Atrium Gallery for the month of February 2026.
Solorzano holds a BFA in Painting and Ceramics from the State University of New York at Potsdam and an MFA in Ceramics from Indiana University’s Eskenazi School of Art, Architecture + Design.
Now based in California, Solorzano recently completed a long-term residency at the American Museum of Ceramic Art (AMOCA). She is currently an Artist in Residence at Laguna Clay and a Lecturer of Ceramics at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. Her work has been recognized nationally, most recently as a 2025 NCECA Emerging Artist and a recipient of the Helen Zucker Seeman Writing and Research Fellowship for Women. She was named a
2024 Ceramics Monthly Emerging Artist and has also received the Bloomington Arts Commission Emerging Artist Grant, the Christyl Ann Boger Memorial Award, and the Nelda Christ Memorial Award.
