Aysha and Mikey attended the New York State College of Ceramics together in the mid 1990’s. Both spent time in the Boston area following their education in New York. In the intervening decades, life occurred; new bodies of artwork, homes, studios, teaching roles, families and friendships were built. The University of New Hampshire, Keene has graciously provided a unique opportunity for them to show their work together again; to revisit, review, celebrate and share what has changed and what is timeless; Old Friends, New Work.  

Aysha Peltz

Aysha Peltz is a studio potter and a member of the visual arts faculty at Bennington College in Vermont. Peltz and her husband, Todd Wahlstrom, also own and operate StudioPro Bats. Peltz received her BFA and MFA from Alfred University. Peltz has taught at several schools and art centers including:  Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts, Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, Alfred University and the Kansas City Art Institute. In 2005, Peltz was awarded an Emerging Artist Award at the National Council for the Education of the Ceramic Arts. In 2019 she was a demonstrating artist for the NCECA conference in Minneapolis. Peltz’s work is in many collections, including the American Museum of Ceramic Art, The Schein-Joseph International Museum of Ceramic Art, Jingdezhen Ceramic Institute, and the Huntington Museum of Art, where she received the Walter Gropius Master Award.

Mikey Walsh

Michaelene/ Mikey Walsh received her BFA in Crafts from the University of Illinois at Urbana- Champaign and her MFA from the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University, NY. She has held teaching positions at Massachusetts College of Art, the University of Georgia, the University of Washington, Virginia Commonwealth University and U-C-Davis in addition to summer instructing at Haystack School of Crafts, Anderson Ranch Arts Center, Arrowmont and Santa Fe Clay. Currently, Mikey is an Associate Professor of Art at Louisiana State University. Mikey has been the recipient of several Louisiana Division of the Arts Individual Artist Grants. Her sculptural and functional ceramic work is exhibited internationally and is also featured in the publications The Figure in Clay by Lark Books, The Human Figure in Clay by the American Ceramic Society. Her sculptural work is installed permanently at Our Lady of the Lake Children’s Hospital, The Cary Saurage Arts Council, LWCCC and the Chemistry and Materials Building, all in Baton Rouge, LA. Having traveled widely in her younger years to such places as Japan, Indonesia, Europe, China and Mexico as well as all around the US, she now lives in Baton Rouge. LA with her husband, two children and two dogs.