Michael Wisner
Michael Wisner shows and teaches nationally. After apprenticing with Jaun Quezada in the village of Mata Ortiz, he has taken the traditional forms and ideas and now makes beautiful modern and contemporary work based on the traditions. He writes, “Inspired by ancient Anasazi and Mimbres potsherds, I began making southwestern pottery. I dig local clays, in the mountains outside my studio at the Anderson Ranch in Colorado. The clay is filtered to remove rocks and debris and then hand coiled to form each piece. The pottery is then painted with a human hair brush and fired outdoors in an open bonfire. Each pot is a one-of-a-kind hand crafted work of art.
Over the past 16 years I have studied extensively with Potters of the American Indian Pueblos and Mata Ortiz Mexico. In 1989 I began an apprenticeship with Juan Quezada that continues today. Each year I spend three to four months working in Juan’s village. Juan’s artistic genius has been a constant source of inspiration. As Juan watches my art evolve he encourages me to develop this pottery into a contemporary form.”
https://harveypreston.com/artists/michael-wisner/
Artist Statement
I look at the creative process as a collaboration between nature and the artist where each has a voice in the process. Art is a celebration of our contact with the natural world. Beautiful places inspire us and become a mirror that reflects inside and helps to stir creativity to the surface.
My work looks is the amalgamation of something old and something new. For many years I studied under a traditional Mexican artist Juan Quezada recipient of Mexicos highest award "Bellas Artes". Juan taught me traditional pottery skills literally from the ground up. His rigorous standard of craftsmanship challenged me to develop my hand building skills to a level I did not know possible. His passion to create was contageous. I worked for years under his tutilage while simultaneously working as a resident artist at the Anderson Ranch Arts Center in Colorado where I was exposed to many contemporary ideas. Straddling both of these worlds of traditional and contemporary ceramics I began to incorporate elements from both. Today I use Juan's old clay technology rich with clay colors only possible by making them yourself from clay found here in the mountains of the Western US. Using old and new hand building techniques i produce forms I find luscious and seductive many I consider soft and even feminine. Over these surfaces I have developed hundreds of contemporary patterns that replace the traditional painting seen in southwest pottery. These patterns all originate from nature. Ideas springing from pinecones to seed pods to the rythmic patterns seen in ocean waves. This union of something old and something new has a familiar feeling that tickles the senses with something brand new over it's surface. I hope you enjoy this work.
