Timothy Brown
Tim Brown is the owner and artist behind Drakes Creek Pottery, a working studio established in 2016 in Trade, Tennessee, just north of Boone, North Carolina. He holds a B.A. with Honors in Fine Arts from Hamilton College and an M.F.A. in Ceramic Sculpture from the University of Notre Dame.
Following graduate school, Brown moved to New Jersey, where he maintained a studio practice while working in carpentry and construction. In 1986, he founded a landscape design and construction company serving Manhattan's rooftop and terrace garden market. Over the next three decades, he designed and built gardens for some of New York City's most distinctive residential properties while continuing to develop his artistic interests.
Today, Brown works in his studio almost every day, creating both functional and sculptural pottery. A member of Hands Gallery in Boone, North Carolina, since 2018, he is known for energetic forms, painterly surfaces, and a willingness to experiment. While grounded in traditional ceramic techniques, his work draws equally from contemporary approaches, incorporating drawing, slip trailing, underglaze painting, custom stencils, digital design, and layered surface decoration.
The Story Behind The Work
Brown rarely makes the same piece twice. Each pot becomes an opportunity to explore a new form, image, color combination, or technical process. Birds, fish, turtles, flowers, seeds, fruit, and other natural motifs appear throughout his work, combining into patterns and visual narratives that evolve from piece to piece. He often describes these images as a visual language—simple symbols that function much like words. For Brown, the process of making is as important as the finished object. He approaches ceramics with the same physical engagement and discipline that he once found in sports, continually refining the relationship between eye, hand, material, and form. Curiosity, experimentation, and lifelong learning remain at the center of his practice.