Randy JohnstonRandy Johnston
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
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