Cuba, Missouri’s artist Julie Balogh Brand

Another in a series of  Viva Cuba’s Mural artist updates for 2010

Julie Balogh Brand, who worked with another local artist Shelly Smith Steiger, on the Amelia, the Millworks, and River murals, never set out to be a mural artist. She is a fine art ceramic artist who works from her studio in the lower level of her home. She uses clay and glazes to create beautiful handmade objects that are also practical such as a bowl, a vase, or a pitcher.

She uses stoneware clay and paints her underglazes directly onto the pottery, firing it in her kiln more than once. Each piece takes many hours of  shaping, painting, and firing to create the colorful pieces that have her distinctive style. Balogh Brand creates custom pieces for many clients.

Balogh Brand fires pieces more than once in during production.

Balogh Brand was born in in Cleveland, Ohio and lived in New York City but has been living and working at her country home in Cuba since 1994. She is largely self taught although she has taken workshops with internationally known ceramic artists. Her father’s Hungarian ancestry and trips to Hungary exposed her to colorful Hungarian pottery and embroidery, which are influences on her art.

The glaze painting process takes several hours.

Since moving to Cuba, Balogh Brand learned mural painting, married, and had a son Ian (an aspiring artist himself). Before Ian’s birth, she taught children and adults from her home studio.  She currently teaches ceramic courses for various schools and from her studio.

Julie Balogh Brand with some of her work at Java.net.

For more details and photos of her art, visit her website at www.juliebrandpottery.com.