Ceramist Luis Enrique Gutierrez had one of the best teachers possible in his homeland of Nicaragua -- his father. Helio Gutierrez is one of Nicaragua's most recognized contemporary pottery artists, best known for updating the look of traditional pottery from his town of San Juan de Oriente, which is famous for its historic ceramic style.

The younger Gutierrez, 24, is staying in Zebulon for several months while he travels the country displaying and showing his wares. One of his stops will be in Raleigh this weekend for the Artsplosure show.

Peace Corps introduction: A long-standing North Carolina-Nicaragua connection was initiated by Zebulon resident Paul Devoti, who acts as business manager, assistant and translator for Gutierrez and his family of ceramists.

Devoti, 36, first discovered the artwork of San Juan de Oriente, about 40 kilometers south of the capital of Managua, because that village happened to be where he received his Peace Corps training in 1995. His focus was small-business development. "I lived with a family there for three months, and the village is known as the pottery village," Devoti said. "They fired it right in the street. The work was very rustic but not very artistic."

He stayed on: From there, Devoti went to southern Nicaragua for two years with a group that gave micro-credit loans to small businesses. "But I always maintained my ties to San Juan and the family I stayed with, and I'd played on a soccer team there." Meanwhile, he met and married a woman from Managua and stayed in the country, starting a T-shirt business after his Peace Corps term ended. "That's when I really got more closely involved with the artisans," he said.

Art appreciation: Devoti's quest to find refined artists in the village led him to Helio, whose work was inspired by both his indigenous background and more modern influences. "He started to do contemporary work and totally blazed trails and got worldwide recognition for it," Devoti said. "His work was taken to Europe, Asia, the U.S. and he started to make money. That's all the village needed to break free of making what I saw when I was there, the little touristy things. Not that Helio was the only high-end artist at the time, but he was the influential one."

Back in the USA: In 1998, Devoti returned to the United States with his wife just before their daughter was born. They moved to Zebulon because Devoti's mother, now living in Nags Head, was in Raleigh. He worked with a few Guatemalan artisans to sell their work stateside. "I was doing bilingual work at PricewaterhouseCoopers and then would go to the Raleigh flea market on the weekends and sell Guatemalan pottery." Eventually, he began to host members of the Gutierrez family and has built a studio for them to work in. "We've had artisans visit about 24 times," he said.

Three-month tours: "I started working with Luis about six years ago, when he was studying at the university," Devoti said. Luis Gutierrez started to learn his father's pottery skills at age 11. "I'd sell some work, and that would pay for more of his school. Although he was working under Helio, he'd do his own geometric designs. Luis started traveling with me two years ago."

Together they go to shows across the country. Gutierrez will stay here for three months before returning home to his wife and young son. "On his first trip to the U.S. he was able to make enough to go home and purchase land, and he's building his house. He's finished three years out of a five-year architecture program, and he's seen economically that he has opportunities in developing his artwork."

Lining up work: Like his father, Gutierrez specializes in contemporary designs. "He digs clay right out of the ground in the village and usually throws the forms," Devoti said. He burnishes the sculpted form with rubbing stones that make it like glass." The wood-fired pieces are then shipped to Zebulon, where Gutierrez uses a system of intricate grids to make his designs. "The lines are drawn in, like sgraffito, and then he does acrylic painting inside the line with a very fine brush." Gutierrez works on a piece during his shows so visitors can see how the work is done. "They are so many lines on it and you see him going around it and you just can't believe it."

Next stop, Nicaragua: This summer Devoti, his wife and their 9-year-old daughter are moving back to Nicaragua, where he'll help run a new artisan market in San Juan de Oriente. "I'll be in charge of international marketing, so I'll be back here for summer events and we do a six-week event in Grand Central Terminal in New York."

Devoti is pleased that the village, in one of the Western Hemisphere's poorest countries, has learned how to make money from its ceramics tradition. "When I first went there the village had thatched huts and a rustic infrastructure. Now it has paved streets and concrete houses and tourists."

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