Studying pottery in college is relevant to life, prof says
The incorporation of art, science and language in ceramics makes it easy to relate to a university, said John Neely, accomplished ceramicist and USU ceramics professor.
Thursday’s Kiger Hour featured Neely who shared his experiences studying ceramics and said for a few months in his early years working with ceramics, he lived in a house filled with his sponsor’s private pottery collection.
“As I start to list the things that informed my own journey – drawing, design, art history and all the obvious art stuff, but there’s also history, chemistry, physics, material science, combustion engineering, language, literature – this list goes on and on,” Neely said.
In Neely’s lecture, titled “You teach WHAT? Pottery in the University,” he said he chose this title because many of his acquaintances are surprised when he shares his occupation with them.
“I can’t tell you how many times I’ve gotten on an airplane and end up talking to the person next to me and they are somewhere in between incredulity and disbelief that pottery goes on in a university,” Neely said.
Neely said most people’s concept of pottery is colored by childhood experiences making more “trivial” objects like ashtrays or hand-prints for school projects. However, Neely’s experience was much more in-depth. At 19-years-old, Neely left to study pottery in Japan, where a variety of friendships with business owners and artists bestowed their expertise and creative influence on him as a young man. Most notable among these was a man named Shimomura.
“The connection (with Shimomura) was to influence my view of Japanese ceramics dramatically, but the fact that he was an unreformed rebel … and a genuine eccentric was far more important,” Neely said, emphasizing the unorthodox nature of his training.
Kiger Hour attendee Ron Thorkildsen, a former professor for the College of Education at USU, agreed that a varied cultural experience can be valuable by a university student. In today’s society, international relations often boil down to issues with currency and the real cultural traditions are neglected, Thorkildsen said.
Utilizing a largely visual presentation style, Neely illustrated his speech with photographs of his time in Japan, examples of various pottery techniques and kiln designs. Using knowledge gained in his time abroad, Neely designed the “Train Kiln,” a wood-fire kiln which is now used internationally to produce glazing effects, once only possible with a much larger kiln and a much larger amount of fuel. Though the majority of Neely’s research for the past 20 years has focused on wood-fire techniques in pottery, the focus was largely accidental. Upon his return from Japan to the United States, Neely found himself in Logan, Utah.
“This of course was the most serious culture shock I ever had,” Neely said.
In Cache Valley, Neely found he had limited resources to fire ceramics and somewhat reluctantly began building wood-fire kilns with recycled brick. This approach built a ceramics program at USU known for wood-firing techniques.
“One of the things I wanted to leave behind in Japan was wood firing,” Neely said. “I’m embracing it now.”
Though he doesn’t work exclusively in wood-firing, Neely acknowledged the potential of the technique to produce unique results.
Trevor Dunn who teaches ceramics at USU with Neely commented further on the relevance of studying pottery in college.
“It’s a good segue into art. A lot of times ceramics is a functional art form – functional in that it’s utilitarian and used on a daily basis. (Students) can understand how art can better your life,” said Dunn.
Neely said that the same design techniques learned in a pottery course were used to make the dishes used by attendees of the Kiger Hour, illustrating the commercial as well as the artistic aspects of ceramics.
– steve.kent@aggiemail.usu.edu