This will be an exciting workshop with lots of discussions about traditional  and new ways  of making, wood firing  and  its relationship to contemporary ceramics. We will view images of historical and contemporary work in ceramics, a personal slide lecture of time spent in Japan and Randy and Jan’s own studio and kilns in River Falls, Wisconsin.

Randy Johnston has had an illustrious 45-year career in ceramics. He is recognized internationally as an artist who has pursued functional expression and brought a fresh aesthetic vision to contemporary form, and for his many contributions to the development of wood kiln technology in the United States. He is professor and department chair emeritus at the University of Wisconsin, River Falls, where he taught ceramics and drawing. His work has been exhibited internationally and he is the recipient of numerous awards including the Bush Artist Fellowship granted by the Bush Foundation in Minnesota and two Visual Artist Fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, and a Distinguished teaching award in American Arts from the James Renwick Society of the Smithsonian.  Johnston received his MFA from Southern Illinois University and a BFA in Studio Arts from the University of Minnesota where he studied with Warren MacKenzie. He also studied in Japan at the pottery of Shimaoka Tatsuzo who was a student of Shoji Hamada. Johnston has presented hundreds of lectures and guest artist presentations worldwide. He has work in the permanent collections of the Victoria and Albert, London, Minneapolis Art Institute, Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Los Angeles County Museum, Nelson Aitkins Museum and numerous international public and private collections.