Liz Lauter

Liz Lauter, ceramics artist working in low fire majolica. I make sculptural tree of life narrative pieces, and functional ceramics, such as candelabras, menorahs, platters, cake plates.

I grew up in San Francisco, California and consider myself a California artist, influenced by a multicultural, creative and thoughtful environment. We took our family to live in Israel for a few years and that added another dimension of culture to our lives.

I studied Art and Botany in college (Mills College and UC Davis) and always merged the two in my artwork and designs. I studied painting with artist, Wayne Thiebaud and consider myself a painter, who is in love with ceramics. I learned ceramics at a young age (11 at Ruby O’Burke’s studio in SF) and have always found a way to work with it and continue learning more.

I ran my own textile product design company for 10 years, Liz Lauter Designs where we screen printed my garden designs onto useful textiles, like aprons, totes and t-shirts and sold wholesale.  I continue designing products on a smaller scale now through other manufacturers.

In 2000 I needed a regular income and so I began teaching high school art in Marin County, at Redwood High School where I live. I was first hired to teach Photography even though I knew NOTHING about darkroom photography. I learned quick, and soon took over the Ceramics program where I taught for almost 20 years. I retired in 2019 and finally have all my time to myself to create my work.

We live just north of San Francisco in a heavenly place called, West Marin, which was the safe haven for the SF Hippies of the 1960’s. In many ways, it still is.