whimseepots / AvivaArts

whimseepots/AvivaArts Studio is Ayenne Applebaum and Elaine Steinberg. Founded by Steinberg in 1995,
creating atypical decorative and functional clay sculptures that combine the concepts of "High Art”,
High Craft” and true "Modern American Folk Art". "Our goal is to infuse pure forms with whimsical abstraction."
These whimsical abstractions explore a playful and joyous life, the "unbearable lightness of being”.

Featured in collections all over the world, each piece is strictly “one of a kind”. Made entirely by hand,
each piece is thrown on the potter’s wheel, hand built, hand painted and glazed.
There is no mold/slip casting, dipping or machine manipulation. Glazes are both commercial and hand mixed.
All are hand applied, approaching each high quality piece as an individual canvas.

Steinberg received a Bachelors of Fine Arts from Boston University in 1962 majoring in Painting, Design and
Art Education spending thirty years as an art educator teaching Drawing, Painting, Color Theory and Composition.
Applebaum received a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Mason Gross School for the Arts Rutger's University in 1984,
majoring in theatrical design-fine arts and a Masters of Fine Arts from the University of Southern California,
majoring in costume/theatrical design/fine arts. In her 17 years in Los Angeles she enjoyed a successful career in the
film industry as a scenic artist and was represented exclusively by Patricia Correiia Gallery as a fine artist.
Her work is collected and shown all over the world . By 1999 the whimseepots/AvivaArts collector base had
grown tremendously. With such a demand it became necessary to centralize the bicoastal studios and Applebaum
relocated to Southeast Florida in 2001.

Additional biographical info can be furnished upon request.