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Iowa City artists display snapshots of their lives through ceramic mug collection at University of Iowa’s Pentacrest Museums
How pottery has shaped the lives of two artists
Jan. 7, 2026 6:00 am, Updated: Jan. 7, 2026 10:04 am
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IOWA CITY — Pottery has been sculpting Aaron Moseley and Laura Kerr’s lives for many years.
The evolution of their formation, individually and as a couple, can be seen on the shelves of Moseley and Kerr’s home, where ceramic mugs serve as the snapshots of their journey together.
The mug shots, if you will, capture where they’ve been, whose lives they’ve crossed paths with, who has inspired them and who they have inspired. They document, in true form, the feelings that each piece of art has stirred in the couple.
In fact, pottery was the mutual friend that first introduced them to each other — a ceramics class at Kirkwood Community College, to be exact.
“It was an invisible string that kept pushing us together. I saw him at Kirkwood and I was like ‘I can’t talk to him — he’s too good at ceramics,’” Kerr said.
They would later become a couple, now together 10 years, thanks to the help of a dating app match and happenstance meetings at Gabe’s in Iowa City.
But Moseley and his love of pottery go way back — even further than the marriage. The potter and Cedar Rapids native was first introduced to it by a high school girlfriend.
With a burly stature, Moseley felt the expectations to play football in school, even though it wasn’t what he cared about. He picked up pottery skills quickly but stuck with it because it was an outlet that captivated him.
“I’m not sure I would’ve attended senior year if I didn’t have my ceramics class. It allowed me to be myself,” he said. “I’ve always had the need to create since I was a little kid.”
If you go:
Laura Kerr and Aaron Moseley’s ceramic mug collection of 31 pieces is on display on the first floor hallway of MacBride Hall at 17 N. Clinton St. in Iowa City at the University of Iowa campus.
It will remain on display until an unspecified date in January 2026.
For more information on the University of Iowa Pentacrest Museums’ “My Collections” series, visit pentacrestmuseums.uiowa.edu/my-collections.
Getting serious about ceramics
An epilepsy diagnosis at age 20 didn’t necessarily make Moseley more passionate about pottery and ceramics, but it confirmed his need for it.
After experiencing his first seizure driving home from a ceramics class, he couldn’t make pots for six months.
“I realized how bad I wanted to do that when I wasn’t able to take a class that semester,” he said. “That cemented it for me.”
Aaron Moseley works on sculpting a vase in his pottery studio at his Iowa City residence on Tuesday, Dec. 30, 2025. Moseley attended Kirkwood for five years for glassblowing and ceramics. He met his wife, Laura Kerr who is also an artist in a ceramics class. Moseley also worked as an apprentice in Virginia for several years, which helped shape how he sculpts his work today. He sells his work at galleries and markets. (Savannah Blake/The Gazette)
Aaron Moseley uses his hands to form a vase while working in his pottery studio at his Iowa City residence on Tuesday, Dec. 30, 2025. Moseley attended Kirkwood for five years for glassblowing and ceramics. He met his wife, Laura Kerr who is also an artist in a ceramics class. Moseley also worked as an apprentice in Virginia for several years, which helped shape how he sculpts his work today. He sells his work at galleries and markets. (Savannah Blake/The Gazette)
Finished ceramic mugs sit on display in his pottery studio at Aaron Moseley’s Iowa City residence on Tuesday, Dec. 30, 2025. Moseley says he has a kiln at home he uses a few times a year to fire his pieces. The pieces take about 80 hours to finish and allow the colors to set in fully. (Savannah Blake/The Gazette)
Aaron Moseley works on sculpting a vase in his pottery studio at his Iowa City residence on Tuesday, December 30, 2025. Moseley has had his work featured in exhibitions around the country. (Savannah Blake/The Gazette)
A self-portrait of Aaron Moseley sits in front of some of his finished ceramic pottery pieces in his pottery studio at his Iowa City residence on Tuesday, December 30, 2025. Moseley says he has a kiln at home he uses a few times a year to fire his pieces. The pieces take about 80 hours to finish and allow the colors to set in fully. (Savannah Blake/The Gazette)
Aaron Moseley works on sculpting a vase in his pottery studio at his Iowa City residence on Tuesday, December 30, 2025. Moseley typically starts with forming a traditional vase shape and then forms it into a unique shape that makes his designs stand out from the more traditional techniques he was taught during his apprenticeship in Virginia. (Savannah Blake/The Gazette)
Tools and an in-progress ceramics piece sit out in Aaron Moseley’s pottery studio at his Iowa City residence on Tuesday, December 30, 2025. Moseley attended Kirkwood for five years for glassblowing and ceramics. He met his wife, Laura Kerr who is also an artist in a ceramics class. Moseley also worked as an apprentice in Virginia for several years, which helped shape how he sculpts his work today. He sells his work at galleries and markets. (Savannah Blake/The Gazette)
Finished ceramic pottery pieces sit on display in Aaron Moseley’s pottery studio at his Iowa City residence on Tuesday, December 30, 2025. Moseley says he has a kiln at home he uses a few times a year to fire his pieces. The pieces take about 80 hours to finish and allow the colors to set in fully. (Savannah Blake/The Gazette)
In 2018, the couple moved to Floyd, Virginia, a small town known for its pottery artists, for Moseley to pursue a pottery apprenticeship and make a living from his art. But after grinding for years, they were never accepted in the South as anything more than outsiders.
It helped them realize what they wanted in a community. They moved back to Iowa City because of its larger community around art — not just ceramics.
In 2021, they started Market on Market, an annual May arts festival for serious and casual artists to learn the economy of their craft without large investments. Art festivals can be a challenge for artists, who spend hundreds or even thousands for a booth, only to break even in sales after long days.
“It’s creating a wider community around art — not just to sell at this thing,” Laura said.
How the collection started
The mug collection started nearly 10 years ago as an accessible entry point to own work from artists Moseley admired when he couldn’t afford larger pieces of pottery.
The couple has 31 mugs on display outside the Pentacrest Museums on the first floor of the University of Iowa’s MacBride Hall. Their entire collection is well over 50 pieces.
There are pieces that are sentimental — works from Moseley’s students in past classes, work from his mentors, and people he has admired in the journey along the way. Mugs are also an easy way to transport memories from their international travels back home.
Their collection’s pieces are selected by how they make the couple feel, both emotionally and physically — in the hand, with its weight, and on the lips with each sip.
Moseley enjoys finding pieces that are flawed with cracks, and has a penchant for “loose and funky” pottery styles that he has difficulty producing personally. In his own production, he prefers soda and wood-fired stoneware where ash can be sprayed into a hot kiln, offering a textured, organic finish dictated by the equipment as it heats to over 2,000 degrees.
“You take them out and appreciate it for what it is, rather than it being clean and white,” Moseley said.
Moseley’s favorite piece is an asymmetrical, wood-fired piece by Josh DeWeese. Kerr said a mug by artist Corinne Telfer-Thorne with animated characters from the “Over the Garden Wall” mini-series most reflects her personality.
There is a line between form and function — what makes a mug art. But any mug, if you think about it, can be art.
“It depends on how it’s produced. I wouldn’t say this diner mug is art, but at the same time, it becomes art because of the nostalgia it has hatched,” Moseley said while looking as a mass produced piece from a diner chain on his coffee table.
“It’s art if you think about it. If you think about the mug you’re using, it becomes art,” Kerr added.
Comments: Features reporter Elijah Decious can be reached at (319) 398-8340 or elijah.decious@thegazette.com.
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