Photography by Yuvie Styles

The smell of clay and paint wafts through the studio. The soft murmurs of a class ensues. Pinching, molding, painting and critical squinted eyes fill the space in between friendly chatter. The rectangular wooden tables are wide and long, decorated with various paint marks. Metal racks are home to an array of ceremic pieces, all in various stages of the creative process. The artists mingle, but the true focus is their creations.

Shuffling through the tables are two women, one with an apron on. She sports a white collared shirt — the collar perched up, just enough to meet the back of her wispy updo — that has an orange paint stain on the right elbow of her rolled up sleeves. Her name is Sharon Hodges. Her medium of choice is paint, but clay is a close second.

Then there’s Mary Nickell. Paint isn’t an accessory she’s sporting today but the pieces of her work that live in the studio suggest that on a different day that may have certainly been the case. Her deep brown hair rests on her shoulders and bangs frame her face. She walks with a calm purpose, jeans and a loose fitting black top complete the look. Her medium of choice is relatively undefined but she paints often for her children — her artwork hanging in their homes.

The women move through the space comfortably, as the organized chaos of art projects lingers in every part of the space. Each room is home to an assortment of canvases, paint, finished paintings, unfinished paintings and even some that exist in limbo, awaiting a final decision about their completion.

Blue Goat Studio offers pottery classes, a pottery club and allows artists to rent workspace. The two also host private adult parties, bring in artists to host adult pottery classes and Friday Nights Out — classes with an instructor that guides guests through a planned project that they can come back and pick up once it’s been fired in their kiln.

If you asked them some years ago if this is what they’d be doing, they’d be probably confused. While art had always “been a part” of them, they didn’t know running a studio was in the books. It just sort of… happened.

This wasn’t the plan. In fact, there isn’t even a business plan. The two laugh at the thought. They both had business experience and felt that was enough. They take it day by day, week by week and so forth.

Hodges had previously owned another studio with another group of friends, a concept born out of their husbands not wanting them to “trash” their homes in pursuit of an artistic endeavor. She was looking for a new location, after deciding the space was no longer preferable, and stumbled upon what would become the Blue Goat space.

“I came across this building, and called Mary and said, ‘Hey, I think this could be something,’” Hodges says.

Photography by Yuvie Styles

The original idea was to have a club with individuals signing up with a monthly fee. That would cover rent and allow the ladies to enjoy a space to create their own works.

“We just didn’t want to get on a hamster wheel, that was our whole thing,” Nickell says. “We want to pay for the studio, and have a space for us to work.”

But when an artist they knew and respected was looking for a new space to host classes, and their students were calling them and asking to use the space, it seemed like something to try.

Since opening in March of this year, the studio is now completely full. Classes are consistent and several members of the community have indulged in the pottery club, having their own racks and work ready for them when they return to create more.

The two admit that they have been “nonstop” since they opened their doors.

Yeah about that hamster wheel we weren’t going to get on?” Hodges begins, eyeing Nickell, who quickly chimes in to help her finish, “Wrong.”

When they speak, a natural comfort buzzes in the space between them. It would seem that there wasn’t a time where they didn’t know each other. Well, that’s partially true. The pair met in 1962, back in first grade.

The ebbs and flows of childhood, their teenage years and adult years naturally pushed and pulled them into different stages in their lives but their friendship didn’t take much effort. It simply was exactly what it needed to be when they returned to one another.

“Our friendship is strong enough that we could go for long periods of time without seeing each other and just pick up,” Hodges said. “Except for my sister, there’s nobody on earth who’s known me longer than Mary.”

While the growth of the studio was unexpected, the community that’s grown from it has been a welcomed surprise.

“People like to come in and feel like it’s safe, it’s not controversial, we don’t talk politics,” Nickell says. “We’re a community of artists, and we’re here to work.”

Photography by Yuvie Styles