Coffee Pot Study

Fire Clay, wood-fired with slip
1994

Artist Statement

The reality that is the starting point of my work is the choice to investigate the formal range of the vessel structure in clay, and the belief in the potential that the images must entertain, suggest a narrative, and allude to things outside of themselves. The largest question is how to invest my art with life, force, dignity and with a sensibility to the process and material. I am interested in this process as a means to manifest ideas and form. Categories are not important. The ongoing pursuit to enlarge the boundaries of conventional perceptions is essential.

I would hope in this work there is a glimmer of a unity that art has enjoyed in earlier ages and other cultures, when it has been less jealous of its autonomy, and more willing to share its functions with religion and magic. For each of us this work becomes a symbol for attitudes, sensibilities and philosophies, some of which are shared, by directly articulating the perception of the user / spectator whose world the work has entered. The involvement with materials and making does not present itself as a dominant and simple factor, but rather as the center of a complex of ambiguities.

Randy J. Johnston 1994

Resume

RANDY JAMES JOHNSTON
N8336 690th Street
River Falls, Wisconsin 54022
(715) 425-5596

EDUCATION
    Master of Fine Arts, 1990
     Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville, Illinois

    Bachelor of Fine Arts/Studio Arts, 1972
    University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota

    Pottery of Shimaoka Tatsuzo who was a student of Shoji Hamada
    Mashiko, Japan
    February-August, 1975

PROFESSIONAL
    Studio in River Falls, Wisconsin
    1972 - Present

    Assistant Professor - Ceramics, 1993 - Present
    University of Wisconsin-River Falls, River Falls, Wisconsin


TEACHINGEXPERIENCE
    Anderson Ranch, Snowmass, Colorado, 1993
    University of Illinois, Champaign/Urbana, 1993

WORKSHOPS
    Rochester Community College, Rochester, Minnesota 1992 - 1993
    Kansas City Art Institute, Kansas City, Missouri, Special Assistant 
    Professor, 1992
    Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville, Illinois, 1989
    Emily Carr School of Art, Vancouver, British Colombia, Summer 
1988
    University of Wisconsin-Stout, Menomonie, Wisconsin, 
    Workshop, 1987
    University of Wisconsin-River Falls, Wisconsin, Visiting Lecturer, 
1985
    Bergen School of Art, Bergen, Norway, 1981
    University of Minnesota Studio Arts, Sabbatical replacement for
    Professor Warren MacKenzie, 1978 - 1979
    University of Minnesota, Quadna Summer Art Center, 1976, 1978, 
1979
    Rochester Art Center, 1973 - 1974 and 1976

PUBLICATIONS
    Studio Potter, "Japan and America: Myth and Reality in      
        Ceramics,"Vol.21, Dec. 1992
    Ceramics Monthly, "Portfolio", October 1991
    "Between Two Fires", Essay for American Wood Fired Catalogue,
        University of lowa, 1991
    Studio Potter, Winter 1989
    Studio Potter, "Wood Firing," Vol.ll, No. 1, 1983
        Early American Pottery, 1977

PUBLICATION
    Warren MacKenzie. An American Potter. 1991

REFERENCES
    Fragile Blossoms Enduring Earth, 1989
    American Craft, December 1990 - January 1991
    Ceramics Monthly, December 1990
    American Craft Portfolio, February 1989
    Ceramics Monthly, April 1989
    History of American Ceramics, Clark 1988