Aidan Fraser works on a piece for her Luster Hustler Ceramics business in her rented studio space in Portland in 2021. For Luster Hustler, Fraser specialized in producing human figurines that could double as a stand-alone sculpture or a functional item. (Photo courtesy Mailee Osten-Tan)
The windows in the living room of Aidan Fraser’s downtown Damariscotta apartment face south, looking down the Damariscotta River. The scenic view takes in the town’s municipal parking lot and the small harbor where the Pumpkinfest Regatta rages every October.
It’s a scene people from away might dream of waking up to and one Fraser appreciates every day. The Damariscotta native returned to her hometown in January 2024 to take a position with the Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts in Newcastle.
As Watershed’s program and events coordinator, Fraser manages the scheduling and logistics of special events and the center’s artist residencies. Ceramic artists come to Watershed from all over the world year-round to focus on their art and learn from each other. The 40-year-old nonprofit provides the facilities and creative support, including room and board and 24/7 studio access.
“There are groups of up to 20 artists coming in every two weeks,” Fraser said. “It’s a lot of logistics with making contracts with artists; placing residents in residencies, communicating with folks looking to come, as well as coordinating volunteer and staff schedules for our big fundraisers, organizing the tents to be delivered, and the port-a-potties, and getting donors and decorating the building for a garden party/VIP party thing. It’s a lot, but I’m really good at it and I love it.”
To date, working at Watershed has exceeded Fraser’s professional expectations, she said. Watershed’s commitment to embracing the diversity of artists is in line with her personal values and her coworkers together form a small, dedicated team.
“For the most part, especially where I’m at in my career and work history, this is a huge,” Fraser said. “I can’t speak necessarily for the folks who were there that are older than me, who’ve worked in arts nonprofits before, but for me, right now, this organization, I’m so lucky to be here.”
Prior to coming to Watershed, Fraser was a professional ceramic artist in Portland. Art in general and ceramic art specifically have been a lifelong interest.
One of her first artistic memories is working with clay during a class at the now defunct Round Top Center for the Arts when she was a grade-school student at Great Salt Bay Community School in Damariscotta. She didn’t do much more with clay until she entered Lincoln Academy and studied under the tutelage of LA visual arts teacher Jonathan Mess.
“I remember taking that first ceramics class and I can’t remember what I was doing in the class, but that whole Damariscotta art center thing when I was 6 just came flooding back and I realized like how much the memory had stayed in me,” she said. “And Jonathan Mess was such an encouraging teacher. I was down there in my study halls and he was really great, just letting me experiment and everything. So it was a really nurturing class environment, which helped me stay interested.”
By the time she graduated Lincoln Academy in 2014, Fraser knew she wanted to work in the arts in some capacity. Unsure about attending college, she took a gap year during which she traveled and worked for local artists and ceramics studios such as Damariscotta Pottery and related retail businesses like The Good Supply in Pemaquid.
Fraser said she felt the gap year was invaluable for her and she recommends the experience for others. Her parents, Barbara Fraser, of Bristol, and Bill Fraser, of Damariscotta, were supportive and let her make her own decisions, for which Aidan Fraser remains grateful. She eventually chose to attend the University of Southern Maine in Portland.
“I’m very grateful that my parents didn’t really push college on me,” she said. “I ended up choosing college and I’m glad I did … I was a year younger than everyone in my grade, and I wasn’t actually sure that I wanted to go to college. My parents are very entrepreneurial so I was just like, oh, I’ll just have some sort of business or work or do some trade or something.”
At USM, she officially pursued a degree in liberal arts, but in reality she studied ceramic art as much as she could. USM had a small but established program, and its size was beneficial in that there was comparatively little competition for studio time.
“I chose USM over (University of Maine) Orono because USM had a ceramics program,” Fraser said. “It’s not huge, but honestly, that kind of allowed a lot of free time there as well. I was just down there all the time in college.”
Fraser said she had hoped to find a full-time position in an arts-related nonprofit, but the COVID-19 pandemic put a damper on her job search. She was waiting tables to make ends meet and taking one final class at USM when the COVID-related shutdown began in March 2020.
Ceramic artist Aidan Fraser stands on the balcony of her Damariscotta apartment. Following the idea she formulated back in high school, Fraser moved back to her hometown in 2024 to work at arts-related nonprofit. (Sherwood Olin photo)
“They shut the school down and sent us home with, like, a few tools and a bag of clay,” Fraser said. “We tried doing ceramics class online and it was awful.”
During the pandemic shutdown, Fraser started making and selling figurines online and she was surprised to realize she had a market. Before the year was out, she had rented studio space, obtained a business license and officially opened her first business, Luster Hustler Ceramics, named for the gold luster she liberally applied to some of her figures.
“I was just like pinching these little lady figures and selling them on my Instagram and I realized people were really interested,” she said. “I started getting a lot of followers. So, when things started to open back up and jobs became available again, I was like, ‘What if I just don’t get a job and I just try to do this?’”
Through Luster Hustler, Fraser specialized in producing human figurines. Most of her pieces could be appreciated as art and could also serve a functional purpose. She sold products online and at markets around the Portland area, supplementing her income by working for other artists as needed.
“There are people out there making mugs way better than I can,” she said. “I did make mugs that were shaped like women, but I wasn’t interested in making just plain functional work. My pieces were always on the verge of being like, they could be a sculpture or they could be your coffee mug if you wanted them to be.”
Although she loved working for herself, ultimately the demands of commerce and the restrictions of scale prompted Fraser to reevaluate her situation. Feeling like she had to devote all of her available time to producing what she knew would sell stifled the creative artist in her, and on she could only produce so much to sell, working by herself.
Within a few weeks of realizing something needed to change, Fraser reached out to Watershed, looking for work. She had some experience at Watershed as a high school student because Mess would bring a group of students over to Watershed at least once year.
At the time Fraser called in late 2023, there were no positions available, but the then interim Director Sadie Bliss invited Fraser to send her resume in anyway. Two weeks after Fraser called, there was an opening.
“She was like, ‘We would like you to interview for the program coordinator position full time,’” Fraser said. “I went in and interviewed and got the job and moved from Portland to here as fast as I could.”
As one of the benefits of employment, Fraser has dedicated studio space. She is still actively creating, even if she has the luxury of not having to produce art for sale. Currently she is busy reading, crafting, and creating collages, but she said, she will always come back to clay.
“It’s malleable,” she said. “It’s limitless possibilities, which can be super overwhelming, but also if you’ve got a clear idea as to what you want, the clay won’t stop you from doing that.”
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