Meet the Locals

I’m a woman who dares to live her big dreams. Believing there was a need for a creative village, A mother of two left Corporate due to childcare issues in the pandemic and opened her own pottery studio. She is the first African American owned studio in Charlotte. I’m overly excited and have always had a can-do attitude.  My passions include helping others and pottery.

My name is Charles Alexander Waddell, of Waddell’s Vessels. I have spent most of my life in Rock Hill, Sc, as well as the coastal region of South Carolina and Georgia. I currently live in the West side of Charlotte and have been teaching pottery classes since graduating from Winthrop in 2018. My family has strong heritage of outreach and serving others, which I carry on teaching in the community. I am a Ceramic teaching artist specializing in Sculpture and functional pottery. My curious nature oftentimes leads to mixed media experimentation including paintings, steel and wood sculpture, and collage art. My functional art focuses on ergonomically sound items highly focused on form, while my sculpture practice is abstract expressionistic representing the parallels between nature and architecture. I am especially interested in the power of nature and it’s effects on man’s creation through the passing of time.

Joanna is an ArtPOP Street Gallery Alum and has had her work featured in multiple exhibitions. Currently she continues her practice as a studio artist in SC. Additionally, she shares her love for pottery through teaching it to others at the local ceramics studio, Village Studio and Gallery.