In her handmade, functional pottery, Sunshine Cobb (IG: @shinygbird) seeks to evoke both nostalgia for home and the sense of wanderlust that has informed her own life and visual sensibilities. Author of the 2018 book “Mastering Hand Building,” the Helena, Montana-based artist is an online business model innovator and a leading advocate for functional art in modern living.
Cobb has drawn praise in critical, commercial, and academic circles for the whimsical, rustic style of her handmade functional pottery. Her vessels use form and surface, texture and color to evoke the sense of age, familiarity, and memory associated with discarded objects. By creating objects meant to be used frequently, the artist explores the evolving nature of the object’s significance to the user as well as the fluctuation between its functional and decorative aspects.
“I hope to create a sense of motion and time in my work,” Cobb has written. “I want my work in clay to represent growth and accomplishment, in which I believe reminiscence and nostalgia play a part.”
Consistently featured in art exhibitions throughout the country, Cobb has a strong social media following and online media presence. Frequently traveling as an invited lecturing and demonstrating artist, Cobb devotes time and effort into growing the ceramics community nationally and in Helena. In addition to volunteering demonstration time for local K–12 art programs, Cobb mentors artists seeking to develop their practice and learn about the field.
