More Than a Pottery Studio: A Journey Into Our Living Gallery + Guardian Jaguar Mural
Pottery Studio + Art Gallery : The Jaguar Mural in progress with Ivan Lopez and son, A’mate Lopez
ARRIVAL — The Moment Before You Step In
You look up. You wonder what these place is?
You see our Guardian Jaguar sitting in a jungle of colors.
A dream envisioned in the jungles of Colombia.
A new animal relative to protect and connect in our community space and overall, our Mission District Community.
You greet the Jaguar and push open the front door and the city quiets behind you.
Something awaits you that you might have not even known you needed.
For a moment, you’re between worlds.
The smell of clay.
The warmth of kilns.
Color pooling across the walls like a soft sunrise.
Welcome to Artillery Ceramics —
a place where art isn’t something you look at…
it’s something that looks back and you are actively part of with us.
You didn’t just walk into a pottery studio.
You stepped into a living ecosystem.
DISCOVERY — Where the Mural Breathes and the Art Watches
Just before you stepped in, the mural by Ivan López rises before you — bold, vibrant, alive.
Walk in and the intention continues.
Animals stare from the wall with the knowing calm of old relatives.
A jaguar holding stories in its eyes.
Bird wings unfurling in bright, impossible colors.
Your favorite animal painted through the colors your inner child would of bursted in joy to see.
Forest geometry stretching across the surface like roots searching for light.
This is not a backdrop.
It’s a portal.
A compass.
A reminder that art can be an ecosystem, too.
And these are the eco systems we all came from
once upon a time before living in our concrete jungles.
The gallery glows with hand-painted apparel, original paintings, and one-of-one ceramics — all sharing the same visual language as the mural.
Every painting looks like it wandered out from inside that wall the jaguar is living in.
You realize: the mural isn’t just painted on the studio.
It’s woven through everything inside it.
CONNECTION — The Artists Behind the Alchemy
Turn a corner and you can almost see color and an animal in each corner of the studio.
This place began with a vision in his mind and is now painted into reality.
Ivan López
Painter.
Muralist.
Animal alchemist.
He brings Colombian culture, power animals, and ecological devotion into every stroke of paint — whether it’s on a canvas or a hand painted sweater.
Together with many other artist he built something that isn’t quite a gallery, not just a studio, and absolutely not a typical retail shop.
This is relationship-based art — art in service of community, ancestry, earth, and story.
You can feel their fingerprints in every corner.
You can see their hearts in every piece.
PARTICIPATION — Your Turn in the Story
As you move through the space, you realize you’re not just a visitor — you’re already part of the mural’s future.
There are café cups tumblers featuring mural artwork available for pre-order, each one locally made and born of the same creative fire that will be in front of the studio is now with you day to day. *Not to forget one -step towards taking care of our Earth together .
There are hand-painted jackets you can try on — garments that feel like stepping into your own jungle or forest that the power animal came from.
There are original paintings ready to travel home with someone who feels their call.
Your participation isn’t transactional.
It’s relational.
When you buy a piece, you help the mural grow.
When you wear a jacket, you carry the studio’s story and these animal’s story into the streets.
When you sip from one of our cups, you fund the next chapter of community art.
It’s not merch.
It’s stewardship.
It is us building a relationship together for the animals, for our community.
