Born and raised in British Columbia, Aleka Tomlinson immigrated to the United States with her family as an early teen where she has spent the majority of her years living in Portland, Oregon. Her schooling in the arts began at Clark Community College, from which she transferred to the Oregon College of Art and Craft to pursue further education focusing on ceramics. Since her time there, Aleka has continued learning through clay by working as a studio assistant to local artists in Portland among which include Victoria Christen and Lilith Rockett. She became a participant in the Ash Street Project Emerging Artists Mentorship Program in 2015 and grew a personal studio practice and individual voice in her work. Aleka has traveled to Penland School of Crafts in North Carolina to be a teacher’s assistant for concentration and summer workshops, and spent a year in upstate New York to complete a two year long assistantship with potter Brian Jones after which she returned to her own studio practice in Southeast Portland. 

Aleka is currently focusing on custom wheel thrown dinnerware sets, as well as exploring some ideas about quilting and basketry through large handbuilt vessel forms. In her spare time she breaks from clay to work in fibers and book arts and inevitably draws these elements back into her ceramic work.