Local artist Tomchik ‘loves entire art and creativity process’

Published 12:06 am Thursday, July 31, 2025

By Karen Kistler

For the Clemmons Courier

SALISBURY — Having always enjoyed the sciences, Clemmons artist Courtney Fall Tomchik continues to use her interest in chemistry and the sciences in her artistic career.

Tomchik began her journey at Clemson University in S.C. studying chemistry with a plan to go into pharmacy; however, plans changed and following some time off from college, she decided to go to Appalachian State University where she earned a bachelor’s degree in ceramics and a minor in psychology.

Growing up in an artist family with her mom being an artist, doll maker and jewelry designer, Tomchik was involved in art at a young age herself, but didn’t decide to make it her career and start professionally selling her artwork full time until the birth of her son Dylan in 2003.

Tomchik’s art will be on display at Pottery 101, located at 101 S. Main St., Salisbury as she will be the featured artist for August at the local gallery, owned by Rachel Gunsch.

“I’m excited that Rachel has given me an opportunity to show my work in Salisbury,” said Tomchik, whose studio is in Clemmons.

She said she doesn’t have any representation in Salisbury, and therefore it would “be nice to get my work in her shop and hopefully it will do well and maybe that will be a new place to introduce new work” adding that it’s also fun to go in a new area and support them.

On Aug. 1, a reception will be held at the gallery from 5 to 7 p.m., providing the community an opportunity to meet and talk with Tomchik and see her work.

She is looking forward to the reception and loves for people to ask her questions.

“I feel like so many people helped me along the way and answered so many questions and helped me learn,” she said, and therefore, Tomchik wants to pay it forward as others have done for her.

She feels that supporting the community is important and that the more people that come out to provide that community support “can only let people know that the arts are truly important” and that the arts community “needs all the support they can get right now.”

Inspired by nature, Tomchik, who grew up in the mountains of western North Carolina, said she loves the colors and the seasons. She also loves tribal, Native American and Mayans, Asian and Polynesian and raku, which is a Japanese firing process.

“It’s very ceremonial and maybe it’s a part that comes out in my work. Ceremony was a big part of all those cultures,” she said.

Tomchik’s first form of artwork while in high school was collages, as she had a passion for collages, which carried over to her work with clay and the raku process.

It was while at Appalachian that she discovered how much she really liked clay and ceramics and concentrated in that media.

After graduating from Appalachian, Tomchik worked in high-end boutiques and as a design assistant and after she met her husband Tom, they moved to Winston-Salem where she ran a handpainted porcelain button company while continuing her education in ceramics, honing her skills at the Sawtooth School for Visual Arts.

She came to love wheelthrown handbuilding while there, she said, but with her collage background, she wanted more texture and began observing the director of the ceramics department doing some raku firing and said she “just fell in love with the raku process.” 

This process “was just so fun and mysterious and the metallics and the variation in colors that came from the different glazes just really fascinated me,” said Tomchik.  She had found her niche.

In information provided by Gunsch, Tomchik shared that her current body of work is more mixed media with a ceramic base using found objects to interject more interest and give new life to what has been discarded. 

“I do raku fire and use multi layers of texture in my ceramics, which creates more interest. This process is done with gas and results in iridescence and variation in colors. I have formulated my own glazes to have more earth tones,” wrote Tomchik.

She does about 25 art shows a year, she said, and at the show in Salisbury, Tomchik plans to have new and older things, including raku and figurative pieces, or storytellers, as she calls them.

“They’re really my heart and soul. I put a lot of my heart and soul into them,” said Tomchik. “They’re probably my favorite things to do. Everything that I do is one of a kind. I could never replicate it.”

When people see her work, Tomchik said, “I hope they’ll look at it and really respond.”

There’s lots of detail in her work, something she really likes and said, “I love to hear the response of people. My work is very different. It’s not traditional. It’s not contemporary.”

Tomchik said that she loves the entire art and creativity process and finds it invigorating.

“It’s been a great career, and I’ve loved every minute of it,” she said.