Photo by Tabitha Johnston

SHEPHERDSTOWN — “This is my nonsense, as I’ve been telling everyone!” said Denise Kupiszewski.

The Shepherdstown resident held a pop-up shop in Evolve over the weekend, featuring her whimsical sculptures of dodo birds and skating turtles, alongside her three-book murder mystery series.

“Pottery takes up 60 percent of my creative focus. Writing uses the remaining 40 percent,” Kupiszewski said. “Doing art taught me to accept the fact that I don’t have to be like everybody else.”

For her entire career, Kupiszewski has worked as an artist and art instructor, in spite of being discouraged from going into the field by her parents.

“Back in the ’70s, I took art history and sculpture at university. I wanted to be an art history major, but that didn’t pan out with my parents, so I left school and got a trade school degree,” she said, mentioning she earned the degree with the plan to continue pursuing her artistic passion on the side. “I figured, I’ll get a job and I’ll work at becoming an artist.”

The Mud Peddler owner Denise Kupiszewski stands by some of the whimsical sculptures in her pop-up shop in Evolve on Saturday. Photo by Tabitha Johnston

She never ended up using that practical degree, as she married her husband, Alek, around that time and then began taking classes in painting, stained glass and, after moving to the Baltimore area in the late-1980s for her husband’s career, pottery. Her favorite of those art forms proved to be pottery — so much so that she became a member of the Shenandoah Potters Guild — but, eventually, she found herself yearning to return to her artistic roots.

“Over the last couple of decades, my work has gone back from pottery wheel to hand building and sculpting,” Kupiszewski said. “My art has come full circle, back to where I started from.”

Having a pop-up shop in downtown Shepherdstown felt like another, though temporary, return to the past as, from 1998 to 2003, Kupiszewski ran The Mud Peddler out of a different storefront on German Street.

“We hit a recession that last year and had to close up shop,” Kupiszewski said. “I’ve been working out of my studio, since then.”

After relocating all of her local classes and sculpture work to The Mud Peddler Studio, located at 146 Shepherd Lane in Shepherdstown, Kupiszewski began exploring a new artistic interest — writing novels. She found that she had a knack for crafting complex characters and entertaining storylines and, as of last year, has published three novels. Two more — the fourth book in The Mud Peddler series and one stand-alone novel — will hopefully be published within the next couple of years.

Ranson resident Damari Ferguson, left, looks at a colorful mug with Charles Town resident Hugo Stump at The Mud Peddler pop-up shop in Evolve on Saturday. Photo by Tabitha Johnston

“My books are lighthearted, not heavy duty,” Kupiszewski said.

Her sculpture art has a similar, more playful theme.

“If I can bring people smiles, then I’ve accomplished my goal,” Kupiszewski said. “My favorite animals to sculpt are dodo birds. They’re so goofy and so much fun to create.

“I did this little pop-up to show everybody that this is the direction that I’m going in,” Kupiszewski said. “Being able to reconnect with former customers and the public in general, has been lovely. This was a wonderful opportunity. I think I’ll do this again.”

Kupiszewski just joined the Over the Mountain Studio Tour, and will be featured on the tour for the first time, this coming fall.

Photo by Tabitha Johnston

To learn more about The Mud Peddler, visit www.themudpeddler.com or The Mud Peddler Studio on Facebook, or call 304-279-7979.