A love of clay and a passion for color and pattern is what fuels Willard’s work as a ceramic artist and potter. As a woman of color, metaphors created through complex layers of pattern and color present endless possibilities for exploring identity, materiality, and design. Working with clay is as much a desire to create, as it is a commitment to nurturing a love of the arts and the handmade in herself and others.

Adero Willard is currently an assistant visiting professor at the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University.  She received a BFA at Alfred University in 1995 and MFA at Nova Scotia College of Art and Design in 2006. She completed a one-year residency at Watershed Center for Ceramic Arts in Maine. Adero has exhibited work nationally and internationally and has been featured in a number of publications and books on ceramics. She has worked as a professor of ceramics at Holyoke Community College since 2011. Since 2014 she is one of the cofounders of Pots on Wheels a nonprofit mobile clay education outreach project.