Chris Staley has a BFA from Wittenburg University and an MFA from the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University. “The essence of making pots for me is about being human. It’s about fragility and strength. It’s about the intimate moment when the handle of a cup touches the hand. Pots are about potential. Pots can create a world of slow time where meaning can be found. With technology spreading at a very increasing pace, my need to feel the world seems essential.”

Left: Stoneware bowl, 6 in. (15 cm), 2005.

Del Harrow received his BS from the University of Oregon, cum laude and his MFA from the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University. “I think of each of my pieces as an abstract narrative whose physical components are a collection of forms, images and found objects organized in a space,” says Harrow. “I don’t intend for the work to have a singular or specific meaning. They are abstractions of the world. They are products of a flow of recycling, abstracting and borrowing fragments of images ideas and objects.” Harrow’s work can be seen at Urban Institute for Contemporary Art, Grand Rapids Michigan.

Left: City of Porcelain and Plastic, 30 ft. (9 m) in length, handbuilt and slip-cast porcelain, plastic tubing, plastic bottles, mild steel wire, aquarium pump, water, and some glaze, water drip oxidation, 2006.

Liz Quackenbush holds a BFA from the University of Colorado at Boulder and an MFA from Rochester Institute of Technology, the School for American Craftsmen. “The terra cotta pieces I make are inspired by ceramics made during the 13th through the 17th centuries in Iran, Spain, Portugal, Italy, France and England,” says Quackenbush. “I call it my ‘crazy quilt’ homage to ceramic history because I patch together many different inspirations.” She is represented by AKAR in Iowa City, Iowa.

Left: Stacked Frogs, 14 in. (35.5 cm) in height, terra cotta, majolica, gold luster, glass enamels, 2006.

John Balistreri holds a BFA from the Kansas City Art Institute and an MFA from Kent State University. He has taught at BGSU since 1996. Balistreri’s work has spanned many subjects; he is currently working on large-scale airplane sculptures. Balistreri has a strong pottery background and continues to produce vessels in conjunction with his sculpture. In addition, he is also conducting research with printing ceramics on a 3D rapid prototyping machine. The project has had positive results leading to several technology grants and patent applications. He is represented by Sherrie Gallerie, Columbus, Ohio, and Sherry Leedy Contemporary Art, Kansas City, Missouri.

Left: Wing, 102 in. (259 cm) in height, stoneware with slip and glaze, soda fired, 2007

Joseph Pintz received his BA from Northwestern University and his MFA from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He has taught at BGSU since 2007. Pintz’ sculptural and functional work explores the role that domestic objects play in fulfilling our needs on a physical and emotional level. His forms are based on mundane objects from the domestic realm, referring to traditional pottery and other implements associated with the hand. His work can be seen at Turman • Larison Contemporary, Helena, Montana, and the Museum of Contemporary Craft, Portland, Oregon.

Left: Joined Drain Tile, 14 in. (36 cm) in height, earthenware, 2008.

Anne Currier has been on the faculty at Alfred for 23 years and her areas of concentration are sophomore wheel and handbuilding, junior sculpture (tile) and graduate studios. Currier holds an MFA from the University of Washington, in Seattle. She is represented by Lacoste Gallery, in Concord, Massachusetts; Harvey/Meadows Gallery, in Aspen, Colorado; Galerie b15, in Munich, Germany; and Galerie Pierre, in Paris, France.

Left: “Swizzeld,” 12 in. (30 cm) in height, glazed ceramic.

Andrea Gill earned her MFA from Alfred in 1976 and has been teaching there for 23 years. She is represented by Harvey Meadows Gallery, Aspen, Colorado.

Left: “Crewel Work,” 34 in. (86 cm) in height, slab-bult and press-molded terra cotta with engobes, majolica glaze, low-fire copper blue glaze, 2007.

John Gill has been teaching at Alfred for 23 years. He studied at the Kansas City Art Institute, where he earned a BFA in 1973, and received his MFA from Alfred in 1975. Gill is represented by Kraushaar Gallery in New York City and Harvey/Meadows Gallery in Aspen, Colorado.

Left: “Billy Budd Series Vase,”28 in. (71 cm) in height, slab-built stoneware with glaze, fired to cone 10.

Linda Sikora holds an MFA from the University of Minnesota and has been a professor at Alfred since 1987. She is represented by Ferrin Gallery and also exhibits in group shows at other galleries.

Left: “Tea For Twenty,” 7½ in (19 cm) in height, thrown porcelaneous stoneware with polychrome glaze, wood/oil/salt fired.

Wayne Higby earned his MFA from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor in 1968 and has been on the facuty at Alfred for 34 years. His work is in the permanent collections of the Museum of Arts and Design in New York City (formerly the American Craft Museum), the Boston Museum of Fine Arts and the Victoria and Albert Museum, among others.

Left: “Earth Cloud,” 30 ft. (9 m) in height, 5000 hand-cut porcelain tiles, 2006.

Walter McConnell earned his MFA from Alfred in 1986 and has been a professor there for ten years. He is represented by Cross Mackenzie Ceramic Art in Washington D.C. and has exhibited in recent exhibitions at the Daum Museum of Contemporary Art in Sedalia, Missouri; Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art in North Adams, Massachusetts, and Northern Clay Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Left: “Itinerant Edens: Fountainhead,” to approximately 9 ft. (3 m) in height, moist clay in plastic enclosures, MDF board, polystyrene, incandescent light, 2006.

Brad Schwieger holds an MFA from Utah State University and has been teaching at Ohio University for seventeen years. Schwieger has conducted workshops and lectured across the United States, Europe and Asia. He has been an artist in residence at the Archie Bray Foundation for the Ceramic Arts and Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts.

Left: “Architectural Still Life,” 16 in. (41 cm) in height, thrown and altered stoneware with multiple glazes, salt fired, nichrome wire, 2006.

Joe Bova earned his MA from the University of New Mexico and has been at OU for seventeen years. He has been a visiting artist at many schools including New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University, the University of Georgia’s Cortona Italy Program, Haystack Mountain School of Craft and Penland School of Crafts, and was a resident artist at the International Ceramics Studio in Kecskemet, Hungary.

Left “Spitting Monkey Teapot,” 7 in. (18 cm) in height, handbuilt white stoneware and porcelain, fired to Cone 10, with overglaze colors, fired to cone 018, 2007.

After receiving undergraduate degrees in England and the Netherlands, Alex Hibbitt came to the states and earned her MFA from the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University. She has been teaching at OU for four years and her area of concentration is installation and mixed media.

Left: “Out of Place,” 12 ft. (3.6 m) in height, porcelain, fired to cone 5, paint.

Chuck McWeeny has been a professor at OU for 24 years and is also the dean of the College of Fine Arts. He earned his MFA from the University of Oklahoma and specializes in handbuilt ceramics, slip casting, and installation. McWeeny has exhibited his work nationally and internationally in more than sixty group shows and twelve solo exhibitions.

Left: “20 Plates,” 66 inches in length, press-molded earthenware with engobe printing, welded steel.

Robert “Boomer” Moore has been an instructor and technician at Ohio University for eight years. Moore earned his MFA from Utah State University in Logan in 1999. He was a fellow at the Archie Bray Foundation in Helena, Montana, in 1995, and he is represented by Red Lodge Clay Center Gallery in Red Lodge, Montana; Iota Gallery in Dallas, Texas; and V2 Gallery in Lubbock, Texas.

Left: “No, No, No!!!” 26 in. (66 cm) in height, slip-cast whiteware, press-molded
indigenous Ohio clay, cast recycled glass, 2007

Nathan Lynch is a sculptor and performance artist and has been teaching at CCA since 2001. Collaboration and experimentation are major components of his practice. Since receiving his MFA from Mills College, Lynch has had residencies and studios at the Anderson Ranch Arts Center, Snowmass Village, Colorado; the Headlands Center for the Arts, Sausalito, California; and the Vermont Studio Center, Johnson, Vermont. His recent performance pieces have been held in New York, Oregon, Virginia and Scotland.

Left: “Albino Goose,” 32 in. (81 cm) in height, handbuilt ceramic with low-fire glaze, Douglas Fir, wire, 2006.

Arthur Gonzalez holds an MA in painting from California State University, Sacramento, and an MFA in ceramics from the University of California, Davis. He is represented by the John Natsoulas Gallery in Davis, California, and has been an associate professor at CCA since 1991.

Left “Song of a Drunken Angel,” 70 in. (178 cm) in height, ceramic and leather on top of contemporary Iranian felt (by Melina Raissnia), 2007.

John DeFazio is an an adjunct faculty member in ceramics and interdisciplinary studies and has been teaching at CCA for six years. He earned his MFA at the San Francisco Art Institute and is represented by Gallery Paule Anglim in San Francisco, and Garth Clark Gallery in New York City.

Left: “Pop Tombstone,” 46 in. (117 cm) in height, cast and glazed earthenware with china paint and fired decals, 1996.

Paul Dresang has been teaching at SIUE for thirty years. He received his MFA from the University of Minnesota and specializes in ceramics and glass. Dresang currently shows his work at Ferrin Gallery, Duane Reed Gallery and Northern
Clay Center.

Left: “Rocket Boy,” to 8 in. (20 cm) in height, porcelain, residual salt fired.

Matt Wilt joined the faculty at SIUE in 2002. He holds an MFA from Ohio University and has received several awards, including a Pennsylvania Council on the Arts Fellowship and the Evelyn Shapiro Foundation Fellowship. Wilt exhibits both nationally and internationally.

Left: “Satellite,” 23 in. (58 cm) in height, stoneware, porcelain, steel.

Michaelene (Mikey) Walsh earned her MFA in ceramics from the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University in 1995. She has been teaching at LSU for seven years and has held teaching positions at Massachusetts College of Art, the University of Georgia, the University of Washington, Virginia Commonwealth University and the University of California-Davis. Walsh’s area of concentration is sculpture and installation.

Left: “Bittersweet,” approximately 6 ft. (1.8 m) square, handbuilt and slip-cast earthenware with low-fire glazes, 2006.

Robert (Bobby) Silverman has an MFA from the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University and has been teaching at LSU for seventeen years. In addition to his teaching, Silverman maintains an active professional career having had two solo exhibitions this past year and doing numerous lectures around the country and in China, Europe and the Mideast. His area of concentration is tile work.

Left: “Icarus,” (Braille translation of the William Carlos Williams poem Landscape with the Fall of Icarus), 36 in. (91 cm) in height, porcelain, 2007.

Peter Pinnell is Professor of Art at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He received his BA (Music) in 1976 from Columbia College (Missouri), and his BFA. in 1980 from the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University, as well as his MFA in 1982 from the University of Colorado at Boulder. Pinnell has taught at UNL since 1995.

Left: Teapot, 9 in. (23 cm), thrown, handbuilt and textured stoneware, coated with Helmer terra sigillata, $500.

Eddie Dominguez is an Associate Professor of Art at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He received his BFA in 1981 from the Cleveland Institute of Art, and his MFA
in 1983 from the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University. Dominguez has taught at UNL since 1998.

Left: “El Hombre de Clavos (The Nail Man),” 15 in. (38 cm) in height, handbuilt earthenware with nails.

Gail Kendall is the Hixson-Leid Professor of Art at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. She received her BSD in 1966 from the University of Michigan, and her MFA in 1974 from Eastern Michigan University. Kendall has taught at UNL since 1986.

Left: Tureen, 11 in. (28 cm) in height, slab- and coil-built terra cotta with slip decoration and transparent colored glazes, 2006.