Wayne Higby – (1943 - )

WAYNE HIGBY – (1943 - ) Wayne Higby is best known for his vessels, sculptures and tiles – often raku fired - which incorporate landscape imagery. The images arise from memories of his youth in Colorado and his travels throughout the world. “My work uses landscape as a vehicle to create some more meditative qualities,” he said.1 He works in both earthenware and porcelain, adjusting the glaze and firing to evoke the particular landscape. “[I attempt]…to create a certain sense of place and moment in the ceramic medium. I play with light through glaze and fire.”2 He is equally recognized for his work as an educator, receiving honorary professorships from universities in China, where he has worked extensively, as well as the United States. Other awards he has won honor the dual contributions he has made to ceramic art and include National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships and recognition from the American Ceramic Society, the American Craft Council and the American Craft Museum as well as the Chancellor‟s Award for Excellence in Teaching from the State University of New York and the Distinguished Educator Award from the James Renwick Alliance. Indeed Higby has won both the Distinguished Craft Educators Award and the Masters of the Medium Award from the James Renwick Alliance. In addition, the American Craft Museum has named him a Visionary of the American Crafts Movement, one of a select group of artists who are “genuine living legends representing the best of American artists in their chosen medium.”1 1. Mark Arnest. “Vessels of the Land/Retrospective Highlights Ceramic Work.” The Colorado Springs Gazette (April 20 2001.) 2. Ibid. 3. “Wayne Higby, Biography.” Harvey/Meadows Gallery, Inc. http://www.harveymeadows.com/artists/biographies/higby_bio.html ARTIST’S STATEMENT – WAYNE HIGBY “For many years now I have worked in earthenware, raku technique. On the other hand, my current efforts in porcelain are in response to travel and work in the People‟s Republic of China and to an ongoing commitment to keeping the adventure in the studio alive. My central interests have not changed although the work has. Today, I‟m thinking more about architecture, but essentially I am concerned with landscape imagery as a focal point of mediation. Space, both real and implied, is of utmost importance. I strive to establish a zone of quiet coherence – a place full of silent, empty space where finite and infinite, intimate and immense intersect…the material and immaterial oscillate. In combination they become the alchemical philosopher‟s stone. Perhaps, psyche and matter are the same.1 “The landscape of America has, for generations, reflected the promise of a New World. Celebrated by artists, the panorama of American nature has been transformed into a symbol of diversity and the spirit of opportunity. From sublime vistas to the intimacy of calm pastures, the American landscape inspires longing and hope. My ceramic work has become an extension of the tradition of American Landscape Art. By process it is an analog to nature herself – earth, water and firm team to bring forth mysteries of place.”2 1. “Artist‟s Statement.” Faculty page, School of Art and Design, Alfred University. http://art.alfred.edu/faculty/fa_higby.html 2. Wayne Higby: Thresholds. Buffalo, NY: Burchfield-Penney Art Center, 2003: 6. RESUME – WAYNE HIGBY 1943 Born, Colorado Springs, CO 1961-1963 University of Colorado-Boulder, major in pre-law, changes to art 1963-1964 World travel 1964-1966 University of Colorado-Boulder, B.F.A. Art Education 1966 Marries Donna Claire Bennett Regional Prize, Craftsmen, USA, South Central Region 1966-1968 University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, M.F.A. Ceramics 1968-1970 Assistant Professor, University of Nebraska-Omaha 1970 Archie Bray Foundation Grant 1970-1973 Assistant Professor, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI 1973-present Professor, New York State College of Ceramics, Alfred University, Alfred, NY 1973, 1977, 1988 National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship 1976 Grant, National Park Service, Washington, DC 1985, 1989 New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship 1986 George A. and Eliza Howard Foundation Fellowship 1990 Master Teacher Award, University of Hartford, CT 1992 Honorary Professor of Fine Art, Hubei Academy of Fine Arts, Wuhan, P.R., China 1993 Chancellor‟s Award for Excellence in Teaching, State University of New York 1994 Honorary Professor of Ceramic Art, Jingdezhen Ceramic Institute, P.R., China 1995 Elected Fellow, American Craft Council American Craft Movement Visionary Award, American Craft Museum 1998 Honorary Chairperson, 1st Yixing International Ceramic Art Conference, Yixing, P.R., China Certificate of Recognition for Outstanding Contributions to American Ceramic Art, American Ceramic Society, Cincinnati, OH Friends of Contemporary Ceramics: Third Annual Lifetime Achievement Award, Past and Present Faculty of the Division of Ceramic Art, College of Ceramics at Alfred University, NY 2000 Honorary Professor of Art, College of Fine Arts, Shanghai University 2002 Distinguished Educator Award, James Renwick Alliance 2005 Masters of the Medium Award, Ceramics, James Renwick Alliance BIOGRAPHY – WAYNE HIGBY Wayne Higby was born in Colorado Springs, CO, and the majestic, open landscape of his native state left its indelible impression. An only child, he raised and rode horses, spending hours alone with his thoughts and the natural wonders around him. Although he took art classes in school and at local art centers, he did not originally consider a career in art, planning instead to follow his father, the District Attorney of Colorado Springs, into law. He enrolled in the University of Colorado-Boulder as a pre-law student, but soon found himself both struggling and questioning his choice. Higby relates that a visit to the law library, and his feeling of panic when he looked through the law books, convinced him he was in the wrong major; further explorations in the library led him to the art section and shortly thereafter, he switched his major to art. Mid- way through his college years he took a break and traveled around the world. A visit to the Heraklion Museum in Crete, with its Minoan pots, convinced him that he wanted to pursue ceramic art, and other experiences led him to also seriously consider the teaching profession. Returning to the university he studied with George Woodman, Betty Woodman, Manual Neri and others. He graduated from the University of Colorado with a B.F.A. in 1966, majoring in art education and minoring in painting and ceramics. Higby continued his education at the University of Michigan, studying with Fred Bauer, Patti Warashina and John Stephenson, and receiving the Regional Prize, “Craftsmen, U.S.A. South Central Region,” exhibiting his Raku Box at the Museum of Contemporary Crafts in New York. After earning his M.F.A. with a major in ceramics and a minor in serigraphy, Higby began teaching at the University of Nebraska in Omaha in 1968. The following year he was a Visiting Lecturer in Ceramics at the University of Washington in Seattle. Traveling through the southwest United States, the Northwest and along the West Coast “I rediscovered landscape,” he said, and soon that rediscovery would lead to landscape imagery dominating his work. A residency at the Archie Bray Foundation in Helena, MT, allowed him the time to develop the imagery, and he began making pots with abstracted landscape motifs. Higby left Nebraska to teach at the Rhode Island School of Design in 1970, staying there until 1973 when he received an offer to join the faculty at the New York State College of Ceramics, Alfred University, in Alfred, NY. Higby has continued as a professor in the School of Art & Design, and was the first holder of the Robert C. Turner Chair in Ceramic Art, the first endowed professorship in the School. In his early work, Higby worked largely in raku, particularly in developing raku lusters. His pieces were primarily slab-formed boxes using a press-mold work method; later he began making large bowls, finding that the softer form allowed him greater freedom with his imagery. The landscape imagery took a step further in the 1980‟s when he began making his “rocks,” sculptural creations which moved the landscape off the pots and into the viewer‟s space. “I have taken the rocks often used as imagery on the landscape bowls, and set them into real space: the space of the viewer. These rocks locate a point in a landscape. This point or place is reproduced as illusion on the surface of the rocks to trigger an atmospheric moment beyond the physical restraints of the sculpture itself.”1 The “rocks” would reappear later, made of porcelain, and also in raku tiles made in the late 1990‟s. A trip to China in 1991 would prove to be a seminal point in Higby‟s career. He found himself attracted to both the Chinese tradition of ceramics and the energy of its people. Since that first visit he has returned often, working with the ceramists there and absorbing the history of the art. That the admiration is mutual is reflected in his being named an Honorary Professor of Fine Art at the Hubei Academy of fine Arts, Wuhan, in 1992; an Honorary Professor of Ceramic Art at the Jingdezhen Ceramic Institute in 1994; Honorary Chairperson of the First Yixing International Ceramic Art Conference in 1998; Honorary Professor at Shanghai University in 2000; and an Honorary Citizen of Jingdezhen, China, a particular honor since it recognized his efforts in cofounding the San Bao International Ceramic Art Institute in a city where porcelain has been used for over 1,000 years and that is noted for producing some of the world‟s finest pottery. His extensive work there, and a visit to Gaolin Mountain outside Jingdezhen where Kaolin was discovered, led him to begin working in porcelain, a material he had not previously used.

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