Meet the Maker Creating Ceramic Vessels and Sculptures Inspired by His Cycladic Island Surroundings
Todd Marshard was once a fashion stylist and photographer before an encounter with a pottery wheel changed his life’s course
For decades, determination drove Todd Marshard through multiple creative lives, including fashion styling, photography, and even staging. “I was always surviving,” he says. “I was out on my own at eleven years old. It was all about conquering.”
It wasn’t until ceramics forced him to slow down and be present that he found the one creative pursuit that he couldn’t easily conquer. Wrestling with a pottery wheel, making what he describes as “little bowls you’d feed a cat and store buttons in,” changed everything. “Switching careers from photography to ceramics,” he says with a laugh, “will definitely make me live longer.”
Today, Marshard lives and works on the Cycladic island of Paros, where he creates hand-built ceramic vessels and sculptures inspired by the pods, shells, driftwood, and stones that he collects from the hills and shores around him. “I never draw anything out,” he explains. “I’ll come up with a shape, then suddenly think, ‘What happens if it gets bigger on one side?’ I just keep pushing it. The sky’s the limit, really.”
Marshard grew up in Marblehead, Massachusetts. Struggling with dyslexia, he was sent to boarding school at eleven after the public school system couldn’t accommodate his learning differences. His mother, Bernice Hartnett, waited tables before teaching herself faux painting, eventually building a successful decorative arts business. His grandfather, Jack Marshard, was a big band leader who, Marshard says, brought Frank Sinatra to Boston early in his career. His grandmother, Sophie, known as “Sparky,” was a free spirit who taught him to ski, deep-sea fish, and embrace new experiences.
His own path was similarly unconventional. He worked multiple jobs while studying communication design at Parsons School of Design in New York—styling friends for photographs and putting together a portfolio that fortuitously landed in the hands of makeup artist Colin Booker. Within days, he found himself on a shoot with Herb Ritts. “I just winged it,” he says of that pivotal moment.
After graduation, Marshard became a successful fashion stylist, working with clients including Madonna and Lenny Kravitz before recognizing something was missing. “I realized I was unhappy as a stylist. I couldn’t hide it,” he says. A friend suggested he get behind the camera, and Vogue fashion editor Tonne Goodman gave him the confidence to continue. “She said, ‘You have a really good eye and a really good sense of light. You’ve got to keep shooting,’” he recalls. Campaigns for Ralph Lauren, Nautica, and Victoria’s Secret followed, along with editorial work for Harper’s Bazaar, Surface, and Travel + Leisure.
While teaching creativity workshops at California’s Esalen Institute, Marshard met ceramic artist Sharon Virtue and later visited her studio. “I walked in and thought, ‘I need to do this.’” He began taking classes and experimenting with raku, eventually selling his early work through Urban Zen, Donna Karan’s lifestyle store. One of his first sales was to the model Iman, whose image once hung in his dorm room.
Marshard spent nearly a decade working with ceramics before transforming the direction of his work by embracing hand-building. His pieces have since caught the eye of interior designers, including Brigette Romanek, Jamie Drake, Genevieve Gorder, and Celeste Robbins, and he’s now represented by Dernier Cri gallery in New York City.
Paros has become central to Marshard’s ceramic practice, where he built what he describes as “a simple stone home” overlooking the Aegean. It sits about a 30-minute walk from his studio, where he experiments with clay gathered near the sea, using it as slip, and paints surfaces with found sea sponges. “I get excited going to the studio every day. I get excited trying something different,” he enthuses. “At 61, I feel like I’m back in college. I have that energy again.”