Pottery on exhibit at Monmouth College
Release Date: February 21, 2005
MONMOUTH, Ill. — An exhibition of ceramics by Wisconsin potter
Michael Schael will be displayed Feb. 21 through March 18 in
Monmouth College’s Len G. Everett Gallery in Hewes Library.
A closing reception for the artist will be held in the gallery from
2 to 4 p.m. on March 18. Schael will also present a workshop where
he will demonstrate working with clay and techniques for throwing
pots on March 17 from 1 to 4 p.m. in Room 103 of McMichael Academic
Hall. The exhibition, workshop and reception are all free and open
to the public.
Currently living and working in Cambridge, Wis., Schael received a
B.A. degree in counseling with the hearing impaired and an M.A.
degree in rehabilitation counseling (specializing in deafness) from
Northern Illinois University in 1984 and 1986, respectively. But it
was his life-long fascination with pottery and kiln firing that led
the artist to his “pursuit of environs that would stimulate my
hunger for the art.”
Since 1999 Schael has served as a production potter for P. Wakefield
& Company and Rock Eagle Pottery, both in Cambridge, where he
specializes in the creation of earthenware flower pots and
wood-fired glazed stoneware, tableware and flower pots. Since 1991
the ceramic artist has served as a production potter for a number of
different companies in Cambridge as well as in Illinois,
Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Norway, France and England.
“Looking back, making pots has always fascinated me,” says Schael,
who remembers his first exposure to pottery was a battery-driven
Tyco potter’s wheel he received for Christmas as a child. While at
the University of Illinois, the artist says he started to explore
his fascination with pottery more fully. It was during this time, he
says, that wood firing “really took hold of me.” He admits searching
the campus and environs for pallets which he would cut up and throw
into the firebox of the outdoor salt kiln he used to fire.
During the summer of 1991, the ceramic artist journeyed to England
hoping to meet and learn from potters, especially those who fired
with wood. While there, he met Clive Bowen, a potter producing
wood-fired earthenware, and helped the artist prepare for a major
exhibition.
“This was the first step on what I now consider to have been a
journeymanship which included working in over a dozen different
workshops in three countries and firing half a dozen different wood
kilns,” says Schael.
The Everett Gallery is open Mondays through Thursdays, 8 a.m. to
midnight; Fridays, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Saturdays, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.;
and Sundays, noon to midnight.
Released
by the Office of College Communications
Barry McNamara, Associate Director of College Communications
Phone: 309-457-2117
Fax: 309-457-2330
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