Mary Scheier

Mary Scheier (née Goldsmith) moved to New York City at the age of 18 and enrolled in classes at the Grand Central School of Art and the Art Students League. She studied in Paris for one year, where she developed her skills as a watercolorist and worked in advertising. Upon her return to the States, Mary settled in Virginia to work for the New Deal's Federal Art Project. She became the director of the Big Stone Gap Art Gallery in Abingdon, where she met Edwin Scheier. They married in 1937, left their posts with the Federal Art Project, and traveled the country as itinerant puppeteers. When Edwin became the director of an art center in Tennessee, the couple experimented with throwing and firing ceramics in the center's industrial kiln, and eventually set up their own pottery shop in Glade Spring, Virginia. Widely regarded as one of the great husband-and-wife teams in American pottery, Mary and Edwin Scheier worked together for decades, creating pieces that seamlessly blend artistry, skill, and utility. (Komanecky, American Potters: Mary and Edwin Scheier, 1993)