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Randy Johnston



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


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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

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