Melissa DiLullo

Pottery

I’m Melissa- aka Fat Bottom Pots. I’m a grateful mom to three teens and two handsome mutts. I teach several styles of yoga and find that yoga and ceramics dovetail perfectly with one another. Both require practice, patience, and presence. I can’t center clay - or hold a balancing pose- when I’m upset, not breathing, or not present. Throwing, trimming carving - same thing! It’s all a kind of mindfulness. A working meditation.

I started making pots in march of 2021, following a house fire. That was….a lot. We are on the other side now, having rebuilt and moved back home in 2023. I set up a studio in my garage in 24, bought a kiln and here we are.

Home is Colorado, but I’m an East Coast girl at heart. Family is everything to me. I love to travel and play golf- I’m firmly on the pickleball bandwagon- and nature brings me peace. Books have always been my refuge and I love beautifully written words.

The layers of Colorado are what inspires my work. I’m still brand new to this and my pots, like me, are a work in progress. I make small batch hand carved one of a kind pieces. I’m drawn to imperfect pattern, disruption, or layers. Texture. Implications. I hope my pieces make you look twice at them, to want to pick them up, and to let you see what you want to see in them. Maybe a tree? Maybe a forest or a feather or a mountain? Yes.

My mark is three lines. They represent my kids. They’re in every thumb rest because I always have my coffee with my morning practice. Part of that is gratitude: and as my thumb sits on those three lines, it’s a physical reminder of all that I have to be grateful for.

I strive to observe and communicate personally impactful experiences in order to uncover the universally human struggles and private personal victories at the roots of these human rights of passage. I use color and execution - from chaotic dripping strokes to more realistic rendering - to convey the emotions driving the interpretation of the subjects. It is my ultimate goal to convey a strong emotional experience that ultimately makes the viewer feel understood and connected

Instagram: @fatbottompottery