Meet Alex Matisse
Alex Matisse is the CEO and Founder of East Fork, a Certified B Corporation in Asheville, North Carolina, committed to bringing you beautiful and enduring objects for the home while using their business to contribute to a more joyful and equitable world.
Made in the Blue Ridge Mountains, East Fork crafts a line of contemporary ceramic dinnerware, made at their factories in Asheville using raw materials sourced from the American Southeast. Their year-round core colors and rotating cast of seasonal glazes have found their way onto tables around the world.
We are lucky to be partnering with East Fork on an Outpost at our sister shop, The Center of Order and Experimentation this holiday season. Alex will be joining us for an intimate design discussion on November 7th about the history of the brand, his voice that shines through the business and his practice, and how generosity builds community.
Read our interview with Alex below.
What excited you and sparked your creativity and curiosity as a child?
I grew up surrounded by art and objects. My father and mother were artists, my father being as much an inventor and engineer as an artist. He was always making things, not just big sculptures which is what he is known for, but small objects and little modifications to everyday things that made them work better. It was his constant curiosity that I think was most influential on me as a young child, always questioning the world around him and figuring out how to form it into something more beautiful and functional than the way he found it.
Could you tell us more about the clay masks you made as a child? Looking back, what do those early creations reveal about the person and artist you were becoming?
I learned to make the masks from my first art teacher, Clarence Rabideau, in the 5th grade. It was my first experience with clay, and I fell in love with the material and the process it forced one to learn to work with it. The masks had long, drawn out faces and were very morose. I was a very serious little kid for most of my childhood, and the masks let me access that part of me and express something very real through my hands. They were lonely and sad and I think reflected a lot of what I carried around with me throughout my childhood.
You grew up surrounded by artists, anthropologists, and makers, and you carry the Matisse name. How did your family's legacy shape your understanding of what it means to live a creative life, and at what point did you feel called to forge your own path rather than inherit one?
Coming from an artistic family, it was very expected to go into the arts. I remember when I started working in an auto shop while I was in college, my father lifted an eyebrow, secretly hoping his son was not going to repair old water-cooled VW’s for the rest of his life. When I left college for good after a year and a half and walked into Matt Jones's rural pottery workshop, I knew immediately that that was the life I wanted to live. It was creative, physical, and connected to place and many of the simple rituals of living that we have grown disconnected to. For me, living a creative life is living in a way that feeds all parts of me, chopping wood and stacking it in a beautiful way, feeding it into a beautiful soapstone woodstove, tending beautiful gardens and watching a landscape evolve over years, and making beautiful things. It all goes hand in hand.
Leaving the Northeast and discovering North Carolina's deep ceramic traditions was a pivotal moment in your road to entrepreneurship. What was it about the pottery culture in North Carolina called to you and how did it change your understanding of craft, community, and place?
I think it was about being part of a larger community, this thing that had been happening here long before me, and will hopefully keep happening in the Southeast long after I am gone. Being an artist is often solitary in many ways, but being a potter, and doing it in an area with such a long-standing tradition felt right. In the beginning it was about learning a craft, not exploring my individual voice. It was about learning to do something really well, that was connected to a long line of people that had also dedicated their lives to the thing. Gradually, as I learned the craft I began to add my own voice into it. I love being part of something that was living and breathing and evolving, like the tradition of pottery making that I was trained in.
After apprenticing with the legendary potter Mark Hewitt, you took your learnings and purchased your own property to build a 36-foot wood-burning kiln. What did this teach you about risk, perseverance, and trusting your instincts as a young artist?
I just jumped in. It was the logical next step after finishing 3 years of apprenticeship. It was just what one does if they have the means and desire to be a production pottery. I was very fortunate in many many ways that I could make that happen. It actually felt much less risky than when we pivoted from that early work to what East Fork is known for today. Collectors who collected the work of my teachers knew who I was through my time as an apprentice and I knew that they would follow me. There was a network of craft fairs and galleries to support my work. I have always been fortunate in that when I set my mind to something, I have whatever that thing is that we need to just keep plugging away. I’m not the fastest, or most prolific, and sometimes easily distractable, but I keep moving in the direction I’m headed with a stubborn commitment. and it has served me well over the years, albeit sometimes frustrating to those around me.
East Fork began as a small team selling pottery at craft shows. Today it's a nationally recognized company and Certified B Corp with an amazing direct to consumer presence and brick and mortar stores in Asheville and Brooklyn (with Washington DC on the way). What values from those early days have remained non-negotiable as the business has scaled? How do you define success today, and has that definition evolved from the days when it was just a handful of potters making work together?
This is a big question that would be better answered in the form of a book. Generosity and curiosity are the two words that immediately came to mind so I will start there. I believe there is a spirit of generosity that has underpinned what we have done and how we have done it since the beginning. It’s most visible in how we approach being an employer and how we approach being a member of the community. In lean times it is always tested, but if we keep coming back to it, it keeps coming back to us, in various ways, sometimes much further down the line. Curiosity has driven our constant striving to figure out new ways of doing things and kept us in beginner’s mind. We moved through the industrial revolution in a period of a few years, largely driven by that open hearted and earnest striving for something different and something better.
East Fork has raised more than $1.7 million for grassroots organizations and community-led initiatives. Was there a specific moment when you realized the company could be a vehicle not only for making beautiful objects but also for advancing equity and collective well-being? What should folks know about the Asheville community and what are some of the great organizations you partner with?
It was from the moment that John and Connie and I started to think about growing East Fork into something larger, and it was one of the most important animating motivations for doing it. We knew that the larger it grew the more impact we could have on the lives of our employees and our community. The community work evolved over the years, driven largely by the work of my wife and business partner, Connie. Today that program has evolved to donating 1% of net profits to community organizations as well as letting our customers donate directly to the same organizations. You can learn more about this work in our 2025 Impact Report here.
You’ve grown a loyal following with your second sales pop-ups around the country. Could you share more about the idea behind these traveling events? How have they expanded your East Fork community and what has the brand learned from being on the road?
The Seconds Sales have grown to be one of the sweetest and most impactful ways our community of customers can connect with the brand. The events obviously are known for their long lines and piles and piles of pottery, but what I think is so sweet about them is how folks connect with each other while they wait in line or shop. People make friends with other East Fork collectors and friendships are born, and it’s obviously a way that people can bring East Fork into their homes for a little less money. It’s also a bit of a treasure hunt, where people never know what will show up, and you can sort through the pottery to sometimes find work that is hardly distinguishable from a first. We hatched the plan a few years ago, and I remember it felt like such a wild idea at first. “You mean you’re going to ship thousands and thousands of pots to some city on the other side of the country and people will really show up?” We’ve really dialed them in at this point, and they’ve become a really important part of the brand for a lot of people.
We are excited to host the East Fork Pottery Outpost at Martha Mae’s sister business: The Center of Order and Experimentation! What excites you about the Chicago market and creative community?
I actually haven’t spent much time in Chicago! I’ve been to a Seconds Sale there before and met a bunch of customers, but I’m really excited to get to know the city more with a longer residency.
What can your loyal and future fans expect from this partnership?
You can look forward to a thoughtfully curated collection of our core forms, an opening party to kick things off, and a unique coffee creation that tastes like a slice of Western North Carolina. Most importantly, it’s a chance to spend time with our pottery and housewares in real life!
Where do you love to hang out in Asheville?
There are so many amazing things to do in Asheville, indoors and out. Start the day at Owl Bakery then head south on the Blue Ridge Parkway and hike down to Flat Laurel Creek, a gin clear mountain creek filled with our native brook trout and deep pools to cool off on a hot day. When you get back in town, book some time in one of the wood-fired barrel saunas at Drip, then get a bite at Tall John’s and you’ve had yourself a classic Asheville day.
What are you currently loving at Martha Mae?
I love the Gemini Desk Pen by Chen Chen and Kai Williams. I have a version of this with a threaded cap and the weight is so wonderful to use.
Go-to studio snack?
Cottage cheese, tomatoes, cracked black pepper and flaky Maldon salt, olive oil, and some Vinegre de Jerez.
Go-to studio drink?
A cup of smoky lapsang souchong with milk and honey.
Go-to studio playlist?
S/S 2026
Studio cleanliness pet-peeve?
An old teacher told me, “Tidiness is good for morale”. I believe this to be true, but I am not tidy by nature.
Studio ritual or superstition?
Nope!
