Artist: David Bolton

David Bolton, ILLINOIS
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I view my family as my first teachers with their strong work ethic. sense of craftsmanship, and their ingenuity with working with available material. Due to the influences, I have a respect for the trades and working with ones hands. I come from a working class family in rural, southern Indiana. My father is a retired assembly line working who worked at a factory that produced "Faultless" casters. His father, my grandfather, was a carpenter and a cabinetmaker. My mother works a seamstress and she learned sewing from her mother, my grandmother. I had my first experience with ceramics in high school with my teacher, Don Crane, who encouraged me to study at the University of Evansville (UE). I strongly resonate with the metaphor of the ceramic vessel and the human body. My undergraduate teacher, Les Miley at UE, made me well aware of the references to the human body to pottery. His simple and eloquent use of the woods "the foot", "the lip", "the shoulder", and "the belly" taught me how to look at a pot. Jim Lawton, my teacher at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, compared altering his pots with the process of darting clothes. Instead of altering a garment around the human body, the vessel is altered around a conceived volume.

On my work, I reference textile patterns and patterns from other sources and apply them to the "fabric" of the clay. Often these patterns are tessellations, patterns that repeat and go on and on, only to be met with a seam, a lip, a foot and then continue on in the next panel in a different direction. Many of these patterns are nostalgic to me, such as paisleys, plaids, checkerboard, houndstooth, and other loud patterns found on 1970-era clothing. The patterns are created digitally and then wood-fired. The idea of new and old process fascinates me, but in the end what pleases me the most is the variation in color and soft flowing kiln atmosphere that blurs the tight edge designs. The firing gives the "fabric" a sense of time and wear like an old work shirt, albeit a fancy work shirt.

EDUCATION
1994
MFA in Ceramics from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago
1991
BFA in Art from the University of Evansville, Evansville, IN

TEACHING EXPERIENCE
2005-Present
Associate Ceramics Professor, College of Lake County, Grayslake, IL
1998-2004
North Arts Studio Coordinator (Ceramics & Sculpture Studio Coordinator), Central Michigan University, Mount Pleasant, MI

COMPETITIVE EXHIBITIONS
2011
4th Annual Lillstreet International: Below the Surface, Chicago, IL. Juror: Matthew Metz (Best of Show)
Strictly Functional Pottery National, Market House Craft Center, East Petersburg, PA. Juror: Mary Barringer, Editor Studio Potter Magazine
Potters Council 2011 Exhibition: Shoulder We Stand On, National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts (NCECA) Conference, Tampa, FL. Juror: Bill Jones, Editor of Pottery Making Illustrated magazine
River2River, The Ceramics Center, Cedar Rapids, IA. Jurors: Bunny McBride Professor Emeritus at the University of Iowa; Joann Schnabel Professor of Art at the University of Northern Iowa; and Sanjay Jani Owner and Founder of AKAR Design Gallery
2010
CraftForms 2010: 16th Annual International Juried Exhibition of Contemporary Craft, Wayne Art Center, Wayne, PA. Juror: Jane C. Milosch Senior Program Officer for the Arts, Office of the Under Secretary for History, Art, and Culture at Smithsonian Institution, formerly the Curator at Rewick Gallery
Third Biennial Concordia Continental Ceramics Competition, Concordia University, Saint Paul, MN. Juror: Minnesota State University Associate Professor Wil Shynkaruk
Recent Works, Robert T. Wright Gallery of Art, Grayslake, IL. Juror: Dubhe Carreno, Director of Dubhe Carreno Gallery in Chicago and Charlotte Rollman, Professor Art at Northern Illinois University
Second Illinois Teapot Show, Millikin University, Decatur, IL. Juror: Millikin University Associate Professor Jim Schietiner.
2009
Recent Works, Robert T. Wright Gallery of Art, Grayslake, IL. Juror: Tim Lowly, artist and gallery director, North Park University, Chicago and Eleanor Spiess-Ferris, artist (Award)
2007
Big Muddy, Clarke College, Dubuque, IA. Jurors: Galena ceramists, Delores Fortuna and Bill Farrell (Honorable Mention)
2002-2003
21st Annual Michigan Potters Association Traveling Ceramics Exhibition. Bloomfield Art Center, Birmingham, MI, Dennos Museum, Traverse City, MI and Space 237, Toledo OH. Jurors: Associate Professor Georgia Strange and Professor John Good heart from Indiana University in Bloomington, IN (Merit Award)
2002
Fourteenth San Angelo National Ceramic Competition, Annual Juried Competition and Exhibition. San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts, San Angelo, TX. Juror: Director Emeritus Jimmy Clark of the Clay Studio in Philadelphia, PA.
2001
Feats of Clay XIV, Lincoln Arts & Culture Foundation, Gladding McBean Pottery, Lincoln, CA. Juror: Baylor University Associate Professor Paul McCoy, (Purchase Award), Photograph of Lock Box published in Clay Times November/December 2001
Celebrate Clay, Lawrence Street Gallery, Pontiac, MI. Juror: Ceramic Artist Mark Chatterly
All Media Show, Studio 23, Bay City, MI
2000
All Studio Media Show, Studio 23, Bay City, MI (Two Honorable Mentions)
1999
USA Craft Today Third National Juried Biennial, Silvermine Guild Arts Center, New Canaan, CT. Juror: Senior Curator Jeremy Adamson of the Renwick Gallery of the National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian INstitute in Washington, DC (Award), Positive review in New York Times September 19, 1999.

INVITATIONAL EXHIBITIONS
2012
Illinois Ceramic Artists, LillStreet Gallery at Seattle NCECA
42nd Annual Ceramics Exhibitions, Crossman Gallery University of Wisconsin - Whitewater. Curator: Jared Janovec
The Cup: 50 Artists, 250 Interpretations, College of Lake County, Grayslake, IL. Curator: Ben Bates
2011
TEA: An Exhibitions of Tea Bowls Made by Illinois Artists, McLean County Arts Center, Bloomington IL. Curator: Claire Hedden
For Tea, Duhbe Carreno Gallery, Chicago, IL. Curator: Ben Bates
Teapots: An Invitational, College of Lake County Grayslake, IL. Curator: Ben Bates
2010
Illinois Artists Show, LillStreet Gallery, Chicago, IL. Curator: Professor Emeritus Dan Anderson, Southern Illinois University Edwarsville
2004
Post Industrial Romanticism (Exhibition with Dan Anderson, John Goodheart, Hoss Haley, Steve Hanson, Stephen Heywood, Ahmad Sabha, and Susanna Speirs), W.D.O.A Contemporary Craft Gallery, Charlotte, NC
Michigan Ceramics, Saginaw Art Museum, Saginaw, MI
Spring Show, Detrois Artist Market, Detroit, MI
Independent College Exhibition, Representing the University of Evansville as an alumni at the Indianapolis National Council on Education for the Ceramics Arts (NCECA) Conference.
2003
Functional Ceramics (National Invitational with Randy Johnston, Liz Quackenbush, Lee Rexrode, and others), Wooster, OH. Curator: Phyllis Blair Clark
2002
DinnerWorks, Water Tower, Louisville Arts Association, Louisville, KY. Curator: Associate Professor John Guenther, Indiana University Southeast
2000
Conceptual Vision: Three Clay Artists (Group Exhibition with Holly Hanessian and Marcia Polenberg), Flora Kirsch Beck Gallery, Alma College, Alma, MI
New Michigan Clay Artist (Group Exhibition with Sam Chung, Holly Hanessian, Sadashi Inuzuka, Jae Won Lee, and Robert Beishline), Buckham Gallery, Flint, MI. Photography of Locked Stacking Canister published in Ceramics Monthly, April 2000.
1998
Teapot Exhibition, Native Soil, Evanston, IL

SOLO EXHIBITION
2011
Pattern and Form, Mary Anderson Center for the Arts at Mount Saint Francis, Mt. St. Francis, IN

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
2011
"Pots Behind the Mask" published in Ceramics Monthly, December 2011
Photograph of Pattern Plate Triptych published in Ceramics Monthly, September 2011
Photograph of Entrapped Ewer published in Ceramics Monthly, September 2011
2002
500 Teapots, editor: Suzanne J.E. Tourtillott, Three teapots featured in book published by Sterling Publications
2001
Photograph of Lock Box published in Clay Times November/December 2001
2000
Photograph of Locked Stacking Canister published in Ceramics Monthly, April 2000
1999
Positive review of "Stacking Teapot" in New York Times, September 19, 1999

PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
Nightwoods Teapot, Vincennes University, Vincennes, IN
Three Lock Box, Sheldon Swope Art Museum, Terre Haute, IN
Abacus: Mind Hand Tool, College of Lake County, Grayslake, IL
Paisley Pleats, College of Lake County, Grayslake, IL