Meet This Artist: Chana Meeks, Painter, Potter, Weaver, Artisan, and Maker

The Chatham Arts Council is investing in artists through our Meet This Artist series, introducing you to 12 Chatham County artists each year in a big way. The fine folks at Hobbs Architects in downtown Pittsboro are powering our Meet This Artist series this year. Architecture is art, and the Hobbs crew values art in our community.

This month’s feature is written by guest Meet This Artist writer, Whitney Greer, of Work in Progress Art & Story Studios and Whitney Greer Communications.

Take a look. Meet your very inspiring neighbors. Meet This Artist. 

Stepping into Chana Meeks’ studio off Second Street in Siler City’s historic downtown is like stepping into a studio space shared among multiple artists. Each area overflows with tools and materials for different mediums. Vibrant batik watercolors of people lounging on the beach hang in one area. In another space, a pottery wheel sits next to shelves filled with face mugs, vases, and condiment dishes ringed with figures she calls her sassy women. In yet another spot, leather tools line a worktable where Chana creates her signature wearables adorned with copper pieces stamped with inspirational words. Upstairs, in another part of the building, you’ll find the three- and seven-foot triangular hand looms on which she designs colorful shawls and ponchos.

While she attended classes to gain foundational skills, Chana considers herself more of a maker than artist, creating functional pieces with a purpose. Her pear-shaped salt pinch is one example. Another is the snozerater, a face mug without a handle, used to separate eggs. Crack the egg, and the yolk settles to the bottom while the whites stream down through the nose. It’s a kid-pleaser she invented with her son.

Today, Chana produces enough pieces to consistently sell her art in multiple local galleries and at weekly art fairs and farmers markets. To find out more about her journey as an artist, read on.

How did you come to work in so many different mediums?

There are wait times when you’re working in pottery, between drying, glazing, and firing. Those are good times to do something else. That’s when I move on to leather and metal stamping. As a maker, I always have to be doing something. When I’m traveling with my husband in our camper, I can take my small loom and weave. I like to bounce around a lot and can’t say I’ll stick with something forever.

Tell me about your art journey. How did you get started?

I expected to go back to work in customer service after I had my children, but I realized the cost of daycare was as much as I would make at work. It was no fun staying home alone with two kids, so I took a part-time job as a library assistant and signed up for a pottery class. Right before the class was about to start, the floor collapsed and the class was canceled. Since I’d already paid, I went to the watercolor class instead.

How did you eventually move into pottery?

I wanted to learn pottery, so in 1996 I signed up for a class at the Randolph Community College. I kept going, but it was a two-year program, and eventually I had to stop. So, I bought a wheel and kiln. Then I had to use them. I became a full-time maker and hustled to sell what I made.

Where do you learn new techniques?

Social media and YouTube. I used the same glazing technique I learned at Randolph for years. Then one day I was on Pinterest, and I saw a piece with a bubble glaze. I researched the technique on social media and found you could crush dried-out glaze into powder, then sprinkle it on a piece. I don’t know how it’ll come out, but I’m now saving all my old glazes. I’m also taking a crochet class right now so I can embellish the borders of my woven shawls.

What do you find most satisfying as an artist?

I love hearing stories from my son, who’s an air and heating specialist, about visiting someone’s house and seeing one of my pieces. I don’t want to see my own artwork. I want it to go somewhere else and know it’s living in someone’s house.

Also, I love to upcycle. While most people are in vintage stores looking for clothes, I’m looking for materials or for tools.

What advice can you give to people who want a career in art?

For kids, I tell them to just try it. When I taught clay art at a therapeutic boarding school, I’d tell the girls, while they were coning and smashing the clay, to tell it what it was going to be. Sometimes the girls would get frustrated, and I’d tell them, it’s all in the touch. Watch me, and you’ll know when you feel it.

I tell people who say, “I want to do that” to go to a local community college and take a class. The instructor makes it look easy, but it’s a matter of touch and feel. I still make mistakes. That’s how you push to the next level with clay. I consider failures lessons. We have to fail to move forward.

What do you want to explore next?

I’m interested in welding, but I won’t take on something new until I give something up. I like simplicity.

Where can people find your work?

You can find my work in Seagrove at B3 Artisan Wares and Studio, Finders and Seekers Emporium in Pittsboro, Twin Birch & Teasel in Siler City (run by another MTA artist and CAC grant recipient Sue Szary), and my town mugs are across the street from Twin Birch at Wild Women Chasing Periwinkle. I’m also the organizer of Piedmont Pop-up, which is a group of makers and growers popping up at wineries, breweries, car shows, and other venues. And folks can always visit my website.

At the Chatham Arts Council, we’re thrilled to support Chana’s work via a Grassroots Arts Grant to Chatham Trades this season. The grant will help fund Chana’s artist fees as she leads 34 adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities in a pinch pottery project to create unity bowls.