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  Wednesday February 11. 2009  








 

I knew a puppeteer who did a show about dinosaurs.  The appearance of the Tyrannosaurs Rex is foreshadowed by booming footsteps.  Then after a moment the audience figures out it’s him stomping his feet back stage and every one laughs  They have been let in on the secret. 

The best craft is like that.  You see the subject of the work, but you also see the material and the hand of the craftsman.   When the whole is bound together with humility - that is, when no part of the thing is “in it” just for the attention then the work approaches art. 

 

My work is sort of a love story.   I have been crazy about clay since I was in high school and tried my hand at sculpture.  Along the way I’ve tried Painting, and Printmaking but I just liked mud.  

I majored in ceramics at the Kansas City Art Institute and then at the University of Montana   With a shinny new sheep skin that declared me to be a “Master of Fine Arts” I settled in to life in Springfield MO. 

Like newlyweds clay and I knew we were in love but what to do with one another was a mystery.  I made pottery and I sculpted.  Gradually I realized that what I was working for in every thing I did was to make clay art that was stuck to buildings. 

 

Two things happened:  The discovery of “Architectural Ceramics for the Studio Potter” By David King and the realization that if I waited until I grew up to try for my dream I could die first.  

Today thanks to the continued support of Bass Pro Shops.  I have been allowed to make Murals, lighting sconces, newel posts, and ornaments for chandlers.I have made Fire place surrounds and ornamental tile for bathroom and kitchens even a spice rack.

A photographer friend once lamented to me the days when he and his colleagues would sit around wondering how a photo had been made; now he complained “We just talk about which version of Photoshop was used.” 

What I do is hands on and low tech.  I mix my own clay, I build my own templates and tools to shape it.  I can't believe just how much fun it is and how lucky I am to do it.

 
Mudsmith Pottery
417-882-4260
gmmudsmith@sbcglobal.net