Corey scillian

For more than 20 years, artist Corey Scillian has been playing in mud.

The daughter of two artistically talented parents, she grew up in central Kansas surrounded by makers. In the late '90s, she found herself living just a few miles from historic Pewabic Pottery in Detroit. The introduction to clay was immediate passion, truly love at first touch. After studying under the tutelage of mentors like Gloria Frank and JoAnn Aquinto, she turned her focus from pottery to sculpture.

     Corey's ceramic studies have taken her from the hills of Tuscany to the mountains of Montana. Most recently, she completed a residency at Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts in Newcastle, Maine. From 2013-2016, she served as the Chairman of the Board at Detroit's venerated Pewabic Pottery. 

     Long fascinated by the animal nature of humans, Corey's work is often an exploration of the tug between our natural instincts and the roles society demands we play. The body of work has grown to include portraiture in the sculpting of life-size busts. Her expansive work has appeared in numerous shows and galleries and is available for purchase in several locations in southeast Michigan.

     An ardent believer in the power of art to engage and activate a community, she created the Wish Rocket. The concept can take endless forms and iterations, but asks observers to become active partners, placing their written wishes in a ceramic rocket, wishes that burn and are launched into the universe when the rocket is fired in a kiln. Her largest rocket to date was commissioned for the Wyandotte (MI) Art Fair in 2016 and remains in the city of Wyandotte's permanent collection.

     A mother of four children, she makes her home with her husband Devin in Grosse Pointe Park, Michigan.