Panagiotis Harry Voulkopoulos, better known as Peter Voulkos, was born on January 29, 1924 in Bozeman, Montana. He was the third child of five born to his Greek immigrant parents. Just after graduating from Gallatin County High School, he was drafted into the United States Army, where he served for three years. Eight years after leaving the army, he married Margaret Cone. Peter’s groundbreaking works are best known for their unique visual weight and somewhat bizarre appearances. Seen in this picture with John Balistreri, Voulkos was fond of hammering, smashing, and gouging large holes in his pieces, and they clearly convey his passion and energy. He created a large number of plates, ice buckets, tea bowls, prints, paintings, and bronzes, most of which are non-conventional pieces. His King’s Chamber is a perfect example of this, though most of his stacks shared many common elements with this one. While most of his later work is wood-fired, his earlier projects were glazed, painted, and even cast in bronze.

It is likely that his heritage had a great impact on his creative mind, as much of his work is reminiscent of traditional Greek pottery. He studied painting and ceramics at Montana State University and earned an MFA from the California College of the Arts. He then founded the ceramics department at Otis College of Art and Design, then did the same at the University of California, Berkeley, where he proceeded to teach from 1959-85. He and Rudy Autio became the Archie Bray Foundation’s first resident artists. Receiving an astonishing number of awards and medals in his life, Peter was a highly decorated man. Most of Peter’s artwork is more sculptural than functional. Even with simple things like plates he defied conventional expectations by creating something that you almost couldn’t use even if you tried.

On February 16, 2002 he died of a heart attack after demonstrating his skill to a live audience during a college ceramics workshop. His artwork can be found in museums worldwide, including the National Gallery in Melbourne, Australia, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, England, the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C., and the Kyoto National Museum of Modern art, to name just a few.

Check out these links for more information on Peter Voulkos!

http://www.artnet.com/awc/peter-voulkos.html

http://www.voulkos.com/frameportfolio.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_voulkos

http://www.voulkos.com/petebio.html

BERNARD PALISSY

Bernard Palissy was believed to be born around 1509, either at Saintes or Agen in France. He is thought to be a potter, craftsmen and writter. Unfortunately he died nearly eighty years of age in Bastille in 1589. His father was a glass-painter and so he was very well trained by him. When he was first shown a white enameled cup, which caused him surprise and excitement, he decided to spend his life “to use his own expressive phrase, like a man who gropes in the dark, in order to discover the secrets of manufacture”.

Bernard Palissy was determined to imitate Chinese porcelain. Even though he failed with Chinese porcelain, he succeeded in making kinds of peasant pottery decorated with naturalistic colored applied reliefs with glazes and enamels. While searching some of his work, I was really impressed on how his work contains so much mythological history.
Bernard Palissy is known for his “rustic” earth ware, covered with colored lead glazes.
Also he almost never used the potters wheel. Few of his most characteristic productions were large plates,ewers, oval dishes and vases, which he would usually apply realistic figures of fish, plants, shells, reptiles and other objects. The colors he used to choose for his pieces were various shades of blue from indigo to ultramarine, greens, several tints of browns and greys and some yellow.

Some of Palissys best ware collections are in the museums of the Louvre, the hotel Cluny, and Sevres and also in England in the Albert Museum.
In 1565 he was appointed as “inventor of rustic pottery to the king and the queen mother”.

His work passed through many phases. After his “rustic figurines”, he made multiple dishes and plaques and also reproductions of the pewter dishes of Francois Briot and many other metalworkers of that period. Palissy was one of the first Europeans to articulate the correct theory of fossils and his pieces and ideas of spring and underground waters were thought to be far in advance of the general knowledge of his time.

George Ohr

George E. Ohr (1857-1918) was an American Ceramist who was also know by his self made name, “ Mad Potter of Biloxi”. He is considered an iconic figure of the American Abstract Expressionist movement. During his lifetime he produced over 10,000 pots, but was forced to rebuild his life after his pottery studio burnt down in Mississippi in 1893. Much of his inspiration came from the fire where he then produced some of the most innovative pieces of his career. His use of organic shapes, lines, brilliantly colored glazes and wheel techniques are fantastic and can be seen in the Orh-O'Keefe Museum of Art dedicated to his work.

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George Ohr manipulated finely potted vessels by twisting, bending, folding, and crimping. He experimented with both structural form and glazes, and his idiosyncratic works, each one a kind of nonrepresentational sculpture, presaged abstraction by several decades. One example is of this slumped footed vase with a pocked blue glaze. Its off balance vertical shape gives it an unexpected gestural quality. The curvy designs of each pot establishes a modern, exotic form. His work was unpopular during his life because it was incredibly advanced for his time.

Ohrs eccentric persona and imaginative aesthetics were condemned throughout his life, but he remained diligent in continuing the creative process. It wasn’t until well after his death in the 1960’s where his work became rediscovered and praised for its modern qualities. His work displayed in the Ohr-O’Keefe Museum of Art experienced the tragedy of Hurricane Katrina where portions of the building were destroyed. This event draws a parallel to the disaster Ohr’s studio had experienced in the fire of 1893. The ceramics that George Ohr had created post-catastrophe were his most masterful and spirited, therefore the theme of triumph resonates throughout displays of his work. His pottery is currently extremely valuable because he was considered a pioneer of modern ceramics; a small pot can sell in the six-figure range. There are many knock off George Ohr pieces that are made to try and fool buyers, but the few who fanatically collect know the signature traits of the originals.

Kristen Kieffer

Kristen Kieffer is a magnificent ceramicist who aligns her work with the detail, sophistication, and beauty of a bygone era. She explores textures and patterns through her pieces and is able to create soft, intricate pieces.

Kristen Kieffer grew up in Louisville, Kentucky. As a little girl she enjoyed going to Louisville Stoneware on school field trips, and visiting the Louisville Art Museum with her parents. When she was in high school she moved to Rockville, Massachusetts where she had access to the Smithsonian’s and began her pursuit of ceramics. In 1993 Kristen received her Associates degree in Studio Ceramics from Montgomery College in 1993. Later in 1995 she recieved her Bachelor in Fine Arts from the NYSCC at Alfred University.

After pursuing ceramics from the educational perspective Kristen moved to Detroit where she got her hands dirty as an Intern for the Greenfield Village Pottery at the Henry Ford Museum. There Kristen threw pots in front of visitors for fourteen months. From there, Kristen took up Artist-In-Residence positions at John Glick’s Plum Tree Pottery in Michigan and at the Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts.

In1998 Kristen returned to school as a graduate student at the Ohio University. In 2001 she received her MFA .

Kristen's primary infludences in her work come from clothing and metal working. She like the idea of soft materials, such as fabric, creating hard ridged lines as in a corset or Elizabethan dress. Conversely how hard material, such silver or brass, yield soft forms. This influence is clearly illustrated in this corset vase. Kristen takes the clay and transforms it into fabric using bold, but soft lines, and detailed decorations all over the corset.

A common theme with Kristen’s work is her use of patterns and stamps. Here are a set of stamped bowls.

Pretty much all of Kristen’s work is soda fired, which really emphasizes her form with its addition of shadows.