F. Scott Fitzgerald once wrote, “There are no second acts in American lives.”

That’s not the case at Annette Stormont’s pottery class at River Arts in Damariscotta, where the large studio space is being used by retirees who have discovered their next interest: working in clay.

For Stormont and her students, creating art from clay was a departure from their routines. Stormont discovered her love for the art 30 years ago at a local community college class while working as a critical care nurse.

Her students have also made a shift from analytical, left-brained careers to give their creativity or right brain a try. Retired biology teacher Claire Yackel of Waldoboro was at a teacher’s conference where everyone took a test to see which side of their brain was more dominant. The results showed she was extremely left-brained, so she wanted to do something creative to challenge herself and started taking pottery classes with Stormont.

Dave McHold of Ocean Point was a physician who specialized in urology before retiring.

“I wanted to use the other side of my brain and use my hands,” he said. “So pottery was my choice.” McHold forms his art using the wheel. He previously studied in North Carolina with well-known potters.

Susan Anderson spends part of the year in Round Pond. Her path to pottery began in California’s Bay area after she retired from a Silicon Valley career as a technical writer.

As a docent for the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco, she explained,  “I was fascinated by the thousand-year tradition of Chinese pottery. Some of the old pieces had as many as 72 pairs of hands making them.”  Anderson explores her creativity by “hand-building” her artwork. She has been a student for about six months.

“Starting something new makes you feel alive again,“ she said of her newfound creative outlet. McHold echoed the sentiment. ”Retired people like us are turned on by examining the things we left behind. Now is the time to revisit your dreams and go back and do it.”

Stormont is considerate of her students’ abilities. Her goal is to acknowledge each person’s strengths and interests. She encourages them to keep their first pieces because there is a charm in them.

The studio at River Arts is an open studio, shared with other classes and available to students throughout the week. Pottery classes are held once a week, usually on Wednesday afternoons from 1 p.m. to 3 pm., but the schedule is flexible.

After downsizing recently, Stormont donated the equipment from her home studio to the River Arts facility. Students find  they are usually in the studio three times each week working on their pottery pieces.

The cost is $150 per month for the class and unlimited studio time, firing, glazes and use of the wheels and tools. The group is looking for an “angel” to help with the estimated cost of about $500 to repair one of the large kilns.

If interested in joining the pottery class or helping repair the kiln, call  Stormont at 350-7530.