Sawyer Street Studios
is a community of working ceramic artists sharing equipment and ideas, located in the Ferry Village neighborhood of South Portland.
The studio is owned and managed by artists Louise Bilodeau, Lynn Duryea, Abby Huntoon, and Sharon Townshend, all of whom maintain their studios on the premises. The building houses Lulu’s Ceramic Shop as well as the studio of Nancy Nevergole. There is equipped rental space available for additional artists. We share the use of a glaze mixing area, four electric kilns, and one high fire gas kiln.
Location: 131 Sawyer Street, So. Portland ME 04106
Directions: East on Broadway, left on Sawyer Street { view on Google Maps }
Hours: Open by chance or by appointment
Phone: (207) 767-4394
A Tribute to Nancy Nevergole
Sawyer Street Studios lost a dear friend and treasured colleague when Nancy Nevergole died of cancer on June 9 2024. Nancy had worked with us since we first moved into our renovated studio building in 1989, producing vast volumes of work in a very small space. Prior to that she shared rented studio space elsewhere in South Portland with Sharon Townshend and Abby Huntoon and before that worked in a studio on Middle Street in the Old Port.
Nancy had a unique vision and way of expressing her own mythologies. She never ceased to surprise us with what she was willing to try, making work ranging from tiny figures to larger-than-life sized. The creation of curious little figures filled in between her large pieces. At Sawyer Street she worked alongside Abby Huntoon who recalls that “through the years Nancy’s sculptures told the tales of events and mishaps in her life: a stolen Mac laptop led to the creation of three large ceramic apples, a small mishap with a mail truck while on her postal route led to a diorama of feelings around that experience. Many months were spent creating large colorful poem vessels with her partner Russ. Nancy constructed the large vases with Russ’s poems wrapped around the sides.”
Nancy’s particular and sometimes peculiar approach was described by Edgar Allen Beam in an article in the Maine Times. In it, Nancy described her earlier work as “soft and repulsive; anxious and relaxed; beauty and beast” To this list Beam added “earthy and erotic” and went on to say Nancy’s “biomorphic abstractions look like what?…mutating croissants, copulating sweet potatoes, tumescent tubers…? In their surface treatment and sense of sub-human drama, Nevergole’s freakish sculptures stand up as somehow vulnerable and bravely self-conscious, even brave”
Nancy was indeed brave…in the studio and as she dealt with disease. You can hear more about her thoughts about her work in And Even Brave: Sculptor Nancy Nevergole
Produced by Lights Out Gallery https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tjkBtfF6dxs
An exhibition of Nancy’s work is being planned for the spring of 2025. If you would like to be notified or are interested in Nancy’s work, please contact Louise Bilodeau Lulu@luluceramics.com.
Louise Bilodeau, Lynn Duryea, Abby Huntoon, Sharon Townshend
