A significant San Diego ceramist, Margaret Elisabeth Ayres Loring was born in Elyria, OH and moved to San Diego in 1910. After graduating from San Diego High School and San Diego State College where she studied ceramics with Ilse Ruocco and sculpture with John Dirks.
Marg Loring’s first art studies were reportedly in drawing, painting and block printing at the San Diego Academy of Art. She also studied sculpture with Anna Valentien in 1929. Although Loring enjoyed block printing and weaving, she started working with clay in 1929, modeling and carving it until she took up working on the wheel. Private glaze instruction was provided by Harold Driscoll and work with Marguerite Wildenhain in the summers of 1956 and 1957.
Ms. Loring was a founding member of the Allied Craftsmen and became president of the group in 1949. The Point Loma home that she shared with her husband Arthur Putnam Loring, was the site of her long-running pottery classes. She also taught at the Fine Arts Gallery of San Diego.
In 1950 she served on the regional jury for the National Ceramic Exhibition in Syracuse, New York. Beyond showing her work with her Allied Craftsmen contemporaries, she exhibited at the Nationals in 1950 and the Los Angeles County Fair's ‘6000 Years Art in Clay’ in 1952.
She was a resident of San Diego until shortly before her death in Kirkland, WA on Sept. 21, 1998.
Sign up for our newsletter and get exclusive content from Modern San Diego.
