Chuck Koucky, an award-winning studio potter, began making pottery in 1971 under the instruction of Dick Leach at Albion College, Michigan. He obtained his BA in fine art (Pottery and Printmaking) and decided to pursue pottery as his career. In 1976 he purchased a farm in northern Michigan and built his first studio where he and his wife Nancy lived and worked. Chuck took a break from production pottery from 1986-2001 when they opened their Art Galleries, Koucky Gallery, in Michigan and Florida. During this time however, Chuck taught workshops in raku, stoneware, and kiln building. He was “Artist in Residence” at Collier County’s Gulfcoast High School (Florida) and a guest speaker at other schools in the area.

Early in 2001 Chuck and his wife Nancy began thinking about once again getting back to their own creations. At the encouragement of friends who lived in Matlacha and Bokeelia, Florida, Chuck and Nancy began to explore the possibilities of attaining this goal on Pine Island. They found the perfect property in which they have combined their home and pottery studio amid a tropical paradise creating a unique and creative atmosphere in which to live and work.

Chuck not only loves working in clay! He is a bit of a Renaissance Craftsman in the sense that he likes to explore new mediums. He laser etches on wood and slate, hand-stitches leather, creates cigar-box style guitars, and love to experiment in the kitchen grilling, fermenting, pickling, and more.

Nancy received her BA in Art History from the College of Wooster in Ohio. After marrying Chuck in 1978, she began her career in art as a weaver, weaving items for the home and women’s fashions.  However, when Chuck and she opened the art galleries, she gave her complete attention to running the two galleries. 

In 2004, after Hurricane Charley, Chuck and Nancy made the decision to close their galleries and live on Pine Island year around.   At this time, she began her new career and passion in Graphic Arts as an animator.  This grew and evolved over the years and she became the Art Director for an international magazine from which she retired in 2019.  However, she continues to free-lance designing books, magazines, and marketing collateral for small, independent authors and businesses.

She also designs a series of fun and colorful images for prints, notecards, stickers, and she creates the designs that Chuck etches into the wood and slate.

When she finds she needs respite from her computer, She enjoys heading to her wood lathe to hand-turn small projects in wood and resins. The tactile qualities of turned and sanded woods enchant her as do the depth and color of the cast resins.