Big Land Pottery

Potter:  Ruby Winona Lethbridge, known all her life as Cookie Lethbridge.

About the artist:  Born and raised in Labrador, Canada, Cookie is of Inuit, Mi’kmag and European descent. She graduated from Cartwright Central High School, now Henry Gordon Academy. Received her B.S. and M.A. from The Pennsylvania State University.  (WE ARE!)  As well as post graduate work at Millersville University. Retired as a public-school teacher in Pennsylvania after having taught middle and high school for thirty years. In 2012, after retirement, she began to work on her life-long dream of being a full time potter and discovered a passion for pottery.  

In 2010, after a visit to Red Bay National Park, UNESCO World Heritage Site, the artist became more determined to study functional pottery. In 2015, Red Bay contacted the artist to do some reproduction work for their gift shop.

In 2017, Cookie transitioned from functional pottery to creative artistic interpretation. In 2022, she began taking sculpture classes with Peruvian artist Puchi Norieaga. This sparked a desire to study sculpture of the human form. Cookie continues to work on understanding the complexity of the physical body in the medium of clay.

Her sculpture, “Mom, the Residential School Survivor” was chosen to exhibit at the Museum of Contemporary Art of the Americas in Miami, Florida. This sculpture will be on permanent exhibit at the Rooms Provincial Museum in St.  John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada in June, 2024.