What is Raku

Raku is a 16th-century Japanese technique of creating ceramic art.

Margot McCartney

Artist

Born in Denver, Colorado, to Kathleen and Maurice Caldwell.  They both graduated from University of Colorado.  Margot has two brothers. They were a close-knit family. Kathleen had her own contract interior design studio for fourteen years.  She was also a fine artist. Maurie was a successful salesman.

Margot attended Colorado State University. Then married and had a son, Sean (her greatest creation). Divorced after 6 years, she went to work for her mother in her interior design studio. and went to school at night and studied art, graphic design and marketing.  Sean, her family and friends came first in her life.

Margot then acquired a job as a graphic artist in a large advertising agency in Denver. She also learned about TV, Radio and print.  After that, she sold many types of advertising in the industry.  She also became an account executive for a small advertising agency. She then became Director of Advertising Sales and had a staff for Bravo Magazine.  Bravo Magazine was the official magazine for The Denver Center for Performing Arts, the Center in which plays and operas are performed after coming from the Kennedy Center and Lincoln Center.  Margot  was very  successful in raising the market share for the magazine.

She then remarried and moved to Irvine, California. Her son was in high school by then.

She secured a job with Radnor, Pennsylvania-based Chilton Publishing who had  48 trade   magazines.  She covered 13 West Coast states for a fine-jewelry trade journal, increasing their market share considerably.  The magazine also started a trade show in Las Vegas which ended up being the largest fine jewelry trade show in the United States.

In 1998, Margot discovered a Raku class in Laguna Beach, California.  She became hooked

and spent her extra time discovering new things that one could do with clay.  Raku has become a spiritual thing for her - she gets absorbed in the process.  Her art work has been displayed in the “Independent Studies Exhibit” at the Festival of Arts Pageant of the Masters in Laguna Beach for 6 years and in the the Laguna Beach Wells Fargo third floor gallery art exhibit for 5 years.  She also showcased her art work in a Laguna Beach store. 

Margot is in the process of being accepted into the prestigious National League of Pen Women based in Washington, DC.  Founded in 1897, the league promotes women in the arts, music, and poetry.  The Pen Women’s mansion was once occupied by President Lincoln’s son, while he was having his mansion built nearby.

To contact Margot McCartney, click here.