LOCAL BUSINESS  Gallery owner doesn't mind if clients get their hands dirty

By Cindy Bellinger

For The New Mexican

Usually, when you walk into a gallery,  the owner doesn't encourage you to start painting or to make sculptures. Not so at Heidi Loewen Porcelain.

Step through the door and there's a good chance Loewen will grab some clay, sit you down at a potter's wheel and have you creating bowls and other vessels in no time.

Photo by Jane Phillips, The New Mexican

"It's my gallery, my working studio and my school,  said Loewen, whose gallery is quickly earning a reputation as a fun place to hang out.

Food Network host Giada De Laurentiis spent a day working with Loewen. "She wanted to learn how to throw porcelain,  Loewen said. "She showed up with a crew of nine last October. She's doing a new program called Giada's Weekend Getaway and going to different places around the country.

The program, featuring Loewen and De Laurentiis, will air Friday at 7:30 p.m. and 10:30 p.m., Saturday at 1:30 a.m., and Sunday at 3 p.m.

Loewen said that working with De Laurentiis, host of the cooking show Everyday Italian, was like winning  the lottery.

"We had so much fun, Loewen said.

Loewen's students have ranged in age from three to 100. Prior experience

with clay is not required.

Boston resident Steven Allison, owner of the Agora Shopping Center in Eldorado, stopped by the studio while on a business trip here a few weekends ago.

"My sister said I should go, he said. "I'm not a creative person, but Heidi made me feel like I was. It was a lot of fun. One of Loewen's trademarks is asking students to create a piece and then toss it up into the air. It's up to them whether they catch the pot or not. Sometimes, she encourages a student to chop into one side of a vessel with their hand to add interest and texture. She then dries the piece, fires and glazes it and sends it to the person who made it.

VerNeil Mesecher, from Dallas, visited Santa Fe while on his honeymoon and said he took his new wife, Renée, to Loewen’s gallery as a surprise.

“We’d never done anything like it, and meeting Heidi was a joy,” he said. “We laughed and had such a great time. She’s a pottery guru. We’re coming back and taking another class this spring.”

Loewen said she has been playing with mud since she was about two years old.

Loewen grew up near Rochester, N.Y. In college, she majored in fine arts and languages. She speaks French and German.

“In college, we studied all the arts — calligraphy, jewelry, painting. But clay has always been my favorite,” she said. “I like how it turns from a liquid quality to dry.”

After graduation — believing she would never become a “real” artist — Loewen went to Switzerland where she worked as a ski instructor. She moved on to administration work at the American College of Switzerland and upon her return to the states, worked as a French translator at the United Nations.

Later, she was offered a job at the Sotheby’s Art Auction House. She worked there for six years and became enamored with Japanese and Chinese porcelain. After that, she helped run Bill Koch’s private art foundation.

“When Bill Koch moved his business to Florida, I moved to Santa Fe,” she said.

That was 15 years ago. Loewen waited until her son was of school age before she began creating her own art.

“The most challenging part of my business is making the art I sell,” she said. “I also do the marketing and the publicity and all the computer work.”

Artist Braldt Bralds often paints the large platters and bowls that she makes.

Loewen enjoys working with other artists as well and said she “loves working at the collaboration level.” That is also why she enjoys doing commissions, she said, and why her classes are so popular.