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 CALL 4 ENTRIES ARTIST LIST CURRENTSHOW PREVIOUSSHOWS |
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Artist's Statement An important aspect of all my sculptural work, teapots included, is the way forms relate and flow together. I am constantly combining and simplifying to enhance movement/ rhythm/ unity. My teapots are informed by historical examples-- Inuit carvings, Pre-Columbian ceramics, African sculpture. To some extent Japanese netsuke carvings and Yixing teapots have also been an influence. I admire the concise vocabulary of these pieces, their use of everyday life as subject matter, their compact forms and their straightforward but unique way of relating figurative elements. In much of this work, the traditions of sculpture and function come together in a way that transcends ordinary ornamentation. I make teapots in editions -- each is a numbered edition of twenty-two or less. The iron-red clay is fired to vitreousness, i.e., the clay particles have fused to the point of being impervious to water. No glazes are used or needed. The satin-smooth surface results from multiple sandings at several stages of the teapot making process. Enjoyment of material and process has always figured significantly in my motivation to make objects, but recent utilization of media such as cloth, sawdust, burdock, peat moss, barbed wire and straw, has me on a real "materials high." The associations they inspire, their varied texture and simple, but rich, palette seem appropriate for the organic explorations I have carried over from preceding work with higher tech materials. While learning how to take advantage of the inherent tendencies of these materials, I try to persuade them to do the unexpected. This encourages a spontaneous working style, which is allowing me to balance a love of craftsmanship with a desire to develop ideas fast enough to retain the freshness of discovery. I have gradually come to realize the extent to which the vitality and rhythms of the natural world (as encompassed in its myriad and sometimes surprising forms and life cycles) influence my sense of form and how those forms relate in space. While it is not my desire to mimic that world, I welcome its influence. The act of gathering materials from prairie, ranch and woodland has deepened my understanding of natural cycles and enriched my connection to the art-making process. My collaborations with choreographers are a logical and, to me, exciting extension of these sculptural explorations. The subtle swaying of the suspended sculptures in response to touch suggested interactive possibilities early on. Gravity is a concern of the dancer that is echoed by the sculpture (in the soft materials that sag under their own weight and in the way the forms hang just above the ground or totter precariously upward). Dancers animate the sculptures and sculptures aid the dancers in the illusion of defying gravity, encouraging both sculptor and dancer to explore new rhythmic possibilities, while adding dimension to an age old concern of the sculptor--that of breathing life into inanimate material. Biography Richard Swanson's first professional career was in psychobiology, a field dedicated to exploring the physical basis of memory. A casual pottery lesson from a friend led to an intense period of self-teaching and a career as a studio potter--later expanded to include ceramic sculpture. In 1974 he came to Helena, Montana as a resident artist at the Archie Bray Foundation, internationally recognized for its influence on the direction of contemporary ceramics. Eventually, an interest in working larger scale with materials other than clay led him back to graduate school--this time in art. Here he undertook the first of several sculpture/dance collaborations with Amy Ragsdale (choreographer and art director of the Montana Transport Company). Since obtaining his MFA from the University of Montana in 1994, his work has been honored with several major grants and awards, including a Montana Art Council Individual Fellowship in Visual Art, Art Matters Foundation Individual Artist Fellowship, Helena Presents Individual Artist Grant, New Forms: Regional Initiative Grant and most recently a Montana Arts Council Percent-for-Art Award to do a permanent sculptural installation at the Engineering and Physical Sciences Building at Montana State University, Bozeman. The artist resides in Helena, Montana with his wife Penny, an artist and art educator. Their son Alex is a college student, majoring in art and computer science. Richard maintains two studios--a pottery, for making utilitarian and sculptural vessels, and a warehouse space, where he works on multi-media sculpture for museum installations, landscape installations and dance collaborations. Born St. Paul, Minnesota,
1944 Publications
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