About Cheryl North Coughlan

Some people are born knowing they're artists. I just took the long way around.

I grew up in St. Louis, Missouri, practically in the shadow of the St. Louis Art Museum. Art was part of my world early — when my uncle passed away, our family inherited a wonderful collection of works that I spent years studying, absorbing, and falling in love with. That inheritance shaped how I see the world, even when I wasn't making anything myself. I went on to earn my B.A. in Art History at Bard College, moved to New York City, met my husband, and eventually landed in Joseph, Oregon in 2001 — one of the most beautifully strange and creatively alive corners of the American West.

For years I worked office jobs, raised my daughter, and admired art more than I made it. That changed in 2013 when I became Executive Director of the Josephy Center for Arts and Culture. Being surrounded by artists every day reignited something in me. I started painting. Then, in 2017, I picked up clay.

The animals

I didn't set out to become a maker of ceramic animals. It just happened that way, the way most true things do.

The animals that first called to me were the soft, familiar ones — the stuffed animals and beloved dogs of childhood. There's something about giving a creature a body in clay, a posture, a personality, that feels like remembering. Like honoring something that mattered.

The smoking animals came later, and they're a little different. They belong to my teenage years — that specific kind of stubbornness that refuses to apologize for itself. Independence. A raised eyebrow. A lit cigarette held with complete confidence. I love them for exactly that.

Then came the glamorous rabbits, and for those I have to credit Katharine Hepburn, Carole Lombard, and Claudette Colbert. I've always been drawn to the women of 1930s romantic comedies — their wit, their grace, their absolute refusal to be anything less than fully themselves. The glamorous rabbits are my tribute to that: feminine and strong-willed, opinionated and elegant, dressed for a world that may or may not be ready for them.

The studio

I work a full and demanding job. The clay is what I do in the in-between hours — early mornings, weekends, the quiet end of a long day. I eventually invested in my own kiln, which changed everything. There's something deeply satisfying about seeing a piece through from raw clay to fired finish entirely on your own terms.

Every piece I make is one of a kind. I don't replicate. I don't produce. I make what arrives, give it a name, and let it go.

If one of these creatures finds its way to your home, I hope it brings you a little of what it brought me to make it — a sense of play, a flash of personality, and maybe just a hint of rebellion.

Cheryl North Coughlan lives and works in Joseph, Oregon.