CLAYTON BAILEY (1939 - )

Clayton Bailey‟s incredible universe defies description. One of the University of California-Davis Funk artists, Bailey uses ceramics, metals, and mixed media to create that give life to the fantasies going on in his head. His amazingly crafted pieces have been described by others, and indeed by himself, as “Nut Art” or “Crock Art” - they move, they make noises, and above all they refuse to take themselves or the world seriously.

ARTIST’S STATEMENT – CLAYTON BAILEY

“I like the „magic‟ of converting mud into stone.”1

1. Quoted in: Susan Peterson. The Craft and Art of Clay. Englewood Cliffs, N. J.: Prentice Hall, 1992.

RESUME – CLAYTON BAILEY

1939 Born, Antigo, WI

1957-1961 University of , Madison, WI, B.S. Art Education

1958 Married Betty

1961-1962 University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI, M.S., Art and Art Education

1962 Toledo Museum of Art glassblowing seminars Paoli Clay Company Instructor, People‟s Art Center, St. Louis, MO Instructor, Ceramic , School of Architecture, Washington University, St. Louis, MO

1963 Instructor, University of Iowa, summer session Louis Comfort Tiffany Grant American Crafts Council Research Grant

1963-1967 Professor of Art, Wisconsin State University, Whitewater, WI

1967 Professor of Art, University of South Dakota Interim Professor, University of California-Davis, Davis, CA

1968-1996 Professor of Art, California State University, Hayward, CA (Chairman of the Art Department 1984-1987)

1979 National Endowment for the Arts Craftsmen‟s Fellowship

1982 Honorary Fellowship Award for Contributions to Education in the Ceramic Arts, NCECA

1990 National Endowment for the Arts Grant

1996-Present Professor Emeritus of Ceramics, California State University, Hayward, CA Studio Artist, Port Costa, CA

BIOGRAPHY – CLAYTON BAILEY

Although primarily identified with the Bay Area, Clayton Bailey was born in Antigo, WI, and grew up in the Midwest. He was interested in science and chemistry and entered the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1957 in pre-pharmacy, at the same time working in a drug store near the campus. A year later, he married his wife, Betty. Bailey says that the success of some cartoons he drew for a campus magazine and the lack of success he had in math convinced him to drop his plans to be a pharmacist and to pursue art studies instead, signing up for a pottery class because it was the only one available.1 The choice took, and he changed his major to ceramics, studying with and taking workshops with Bernard Leach and Peter Voulkos. He focused primarily on hand building to distinguish himself from the other students who were mostly throwing pots. He received a B.S. degree in Art Education in 1961, and continued at the university in the Graduate Program, working as a studio technician and instructor. In 1962 he graduated with an M.S. in Art and Art Education, and over the next year taught in several different locations in St. Louis.

In 1963 Bailey began teaching at Wisconsin State University –Whitewater, where he stayed until 1967. He left to join Francis Coelho at the University of South Dakota to help in starting a new art department. For a period that winter he also taught at the University of California-Davis, replacing who was on a leave of absence, and he was introduced to the Funk artists working in the Bay area. When the program at South Dakota was deemed too revolutionary and Coelho fired, most of the faculty left, and Bailey and his family decided to move to California, settling in the area around Crockett on the Carquinez Strait. They set up a live-in studio in a vacant café, and Bailey began looking for a teaching position. His first interview at California State University-Hayward was his last one. He was offered a part-time position, which he accepted, and which became a tenure track appointment in the department in 1970. That year he moved his home and studio to rural Port Costa, CA, where fellow artist Roy deForest was his neighbor. Bailey remained as a professor at the university until his retirement in 1996, serving as chairman from 1984-1987; since his retirement, he has been professor emeritus of ceramics.

West Coast Funk emerged out of the Bay area in the 1960s and combined humor, satire, irreverence, and often social and political critique, brashly pushing the limits of traditional . Of the University of California-Davis artists who comprised this group, Bailey is “…credited as being the zaniest.”2 In addition to his imaginative ceramics, some classified as “Kinetic Ceramics” as they move or emit noises (burping bowls and busts), he works with metal sculpture and found objects, creating a series of robots, many life-size, and sculptural ray guns. His ceramic sculptures are both weird and compelling and include an entire museum of skeletons of mythical animals, his “Kaolithic Wonders,” overseen by one of his alter egos, Dr. Gladstone; large humorous figures and animals; “Mad Dr.‟s Laboratory;” the list goes on. His fertile imagination, expressed in his art, seems to have no bounds.

Today Bailey and his artist wife Betty, continue to live and work in Port Costa, CA. Their work can be viewed and available pieces purchased on their web site: http://claytonbailey.com, which also contains virtual tours of the studio and gallery along with web cam links to both the studio and Port Costa, all punctuated with the “boing-boing” of a jaw harp, another of Bailey‟s many interests. His work has been shown in numerous exhibitions, both solo and group, and he has received several prestigious awards, including two National Endowment for the Arts Grants, a Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Grant, and an Council Grant, among others.

1. Bailey, Clayton. “A Short Chronology of the Artist‟s Life.” http://www.claytonbailey.com

2. Quoted from: “The Lighter Side of Bay Area Figuration.” , San Jose, CA. http://www.sjmusart.org/content/exhibitions/past/exhibition_info.phtml?itemID=54

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY – CLAYTON BAILEY

Books and Catalogs

Adair, Anne, Sandy Simon, et al. More Than Clay: the Toki Collection of Ceramics. Davis, CA: Pence Gallery, 1998.

Arneson, Robert, Marc Lancet et al. 30 Ceramic Sculptors 1990. Davis, CA: Natsoulas Novelozo Gallery, 1990.

Aurand, Susan, and Joseph N. Newland. Fantastic. Seattle, WA: Henry Art Gallery, University of Washington, 1985.

Bailey, Clayton. Clayton G. Bailey: Scientific Sculptures. Walnut Creek, CA: Walnut Creek Civic Arts Gallery, 1982.

______. Clayton Bailey Sculpture. Redding, CA: Redding Museum & Art Center, 1984.

______. Robot Sculptures. Santa Clara, CA: Triton Museum of Art, 1981.

Bay Area Sculptors of the 1960s, Then and Now. San Francisco, CA: Braunstein/Quay Gallery, 1990.

Big Show, May 16-June 12. Milwaukee, WI: University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, School of Fine Arts.

Clark, Garth. A Century of Ceramics in the United States 1878-1978. New York: E. P. Dutton, 1979.

Darling, Lowell, Jim Adamson, et al. Nut Pot Bag: or, Clay Without Tears. Davis, CA: Art Center of the World, 1971.

DePaoli, G. Joan, and Clayton Bailey. Clayton Bailey: Happenings in the Circus of Life. Davis, CA: John Natsoulas Press, 2000.

Gunter, Veronika Alice. 500 Figures in Clay. Ashville, NC: Lark Books, 2004.

Held, Peter. Humor, Irony and Wit: Ceramic Funk from the Sixties and Beyond. Tempe, AZ: Arizona State University, 2004.

McCarthy, Terrence. The Chair Affair. Oakland, CA: The Oakland Museum Women‟s Board, 1994.

Newland, Joseph N. Susan Aurand, Clayton Bailey, Bruce Houston, Therese May, Balerie L. Patten, Paul Pratchenko.” Seattle: University of Washington, 1985.

Peterson, Susan. Contemporary Ceramics. New York: Watson-Guptill Publications, 2000.

______. The Craft and Art of Clay. Englewood Cliffs, N. J.: Prentice Hall, 1992.

Roukes, Nicholas. Artful Jesters: Innovators of Visual Wit and Humor. Berkeley, CA: Ten Speed Press, 2004.

Periodicals

Adelson, Fred B. “Art Review: Putting Forth a New Face on Reality.” The New York Times, December 10, 2000.

Adkins, Gretchen. “In Your Face.” Ceramic Review no. 189 (May/June 2001): 46-49.

“Civilizations in Clay.” Craft Horizons 37 (December 1977): 28-35.

Folk, Thomas. “Davis Funk.” Ceramics Monthly 41 (December 1993): 32-35.

Griffen, K. “Montreal Workshop.” Ceramics Monthly 29 (September 1981): 83-84.

Koppman, Debra. “‟Menagerie.‟” Artweek 37, no. 6 (July/August 2006): 25.

Levin, Elaine. “Ceramic Still Life: The Common Object.” Ceramics (Sydney, Australia) no. 32 (1998): 52-58.

Tarshis, Jerome. “Letter from San Francisco.” Studio International 186 (November 1973): 192.

Van Proyen, Mark. “Clayton Bailey.” American Ceramics 11, no. 2 (1994): 54.

Whiting, Sam. “A Port with a Past.” San Francisco, CA: The San Francisco Chronicle (October 12, 2003): CM-8.

Zack, David. “ Californian Myth-Making: Ceramic Sculptors.” Art & Artists 4 (July 1969): 26-31.

______. “Nut Art in Quake Time.” Art News 69 (March 1970): 38-41+.

Video and Other Media

Bailey, Clayton, and David C. Devanney. “Clay, with Clayton Bailey.” North Bergen, NJ: Hudson Video Productions, 1974. VHS

“The Chair Affair.” Oakland CA: Oakland Museum of California, 1994. VHS

“Hello Again Tour with Susan Subtle and Clayton Bailey.” Oakland, CA: Oakland Museum of California, 1997. VHS

“Raku Geyser Bottle Performance.” Davis, CA: John Natsoulas Gallery, 1991. VHS

“Revolutions of the Wheel: The Emergence of Clay Art.” Directed and edited by Scott Sterling. Queens Row, 1997. VHS

“Show of Robots.” San Francisco, CA, 1983 VHS

GALLERY REPRESENTATION – CLAYTON BAILEY http://www.claytonbailey.com

WEB SITES – CLAYTON BAILEY http://www.claytonbailey.com/ Official Clayton Bailey web site http://www.roadtripamerica.com/people/bailey.htm Account of a visit to Clayton Bailey‟s studio in 1997 with link to live studio cam at Bailey‟s studio http://www.ideum.com/robotvr.html Link to video of Bailey and his robots

August 2007