Josh Copus is a ceramic artist and creative entrepreneur from Marshall, North Carolina, where he lives with his flower farmer wife Emily Copus. Josh is originally from Floyd County, Virginia, where he was raised in a close-knit community of farmers and artisans in the Blue Ridge Mountains. The local traditions of crafts and agriculture in Appalachia blended with the new ideas and outlook of the alternative community to form the basis of Josh’s life philosophy and instill an appreciation for art and nature that strongly influences his current work in ceramics. Since moving to North Carolina in 1998 to attend Warren Wilson College, Josh has continued to study ceramics at a variety of schools and through countless hours of working with other artists throughout the world.
He received an associates degree in professional crafts from the Haywood Community College in 2003 and a bachelor of fine arts degree from the University of North Carolina, Asheville in 2007, where he started the Building Community Project.
After receiving the Windgate Fellowship, Josh bought two acres of land in Madison county, burned a house down, built an outhouse, and began establishing a woodfired pottery compound. He has since built 3 large wood burning kilns, a studio, and a whole network of barns and gardens on the property.
In 2016, Josh bought the Old Marshall Jail with a group of friends. They are currently in the process of readapting the space into a creative blend of residential apartments and commercial space. When he is not building and making things, Josh spends most of his time on his land stacking rocks, enjoying the satisfaction of freshly cut grass, operating the tractor, and constantly searching for interesting materials to build and make things with.