Karissa Masse

I’ve had an affinity for art since childhood, growing up on a farm on Kezar Lake in Lovell, Maine. One of five children in a musical and artistic family, my creative focus sharpened throughout my school years. I attended Rochester Institute of Technology as an undeclared art student, where I sat at a wheel for the first time and instantly fell in love with clay. I settled on ceramics as my medium of choice and graduated with honors in 1999 with a BFA in ceramics and sculpture from the School for American Craft at RIT.

By age 24, I had started my career as a studio potter and sculptor. I opened my first business with a partner in North Conway Village called Earth & Fire. During this time I exhibited my work in juried craft shows throughout New England, including Paradise City and the League of NH Craftsmen’s Annual Fair. In 2004, I was hired as the art teacher at Fryeburg Academy and established a pottery studio and ceramics program there.

In 2006, the same year I became a mother, the opportunity to purchase the then 75 year old historical League of NH Craftsmen gallery in North Conway Village arose. With my young child in tow, I left my teaching career and became curator and manager of the gallery, representing over 300 juried NH craftsmen. Although parenting and managing the gallery took most of my attention, I was drawn back to my own creative work. Within a couple of years I had rebuilt my pottery studio on the lower level of the gallery and resumed working with clay. I started teaching pottery again, and developed an education program which has grown over the last two decades into a creative community pottery studio, so successful that my own work no longer fit in the space!

Having spent the majority of my adult life focused on fostering and promoting art and NH craft in the community, I finally gave myself the gift of a designated creative space; White Willow Pottery Studio was born in 2026 when I carved a little piece of sunlit studio space just for me. I can now slip into my studio and into my own creative bliss, making the work that calls to me into its quiet meditative peace.