There and Back Again: A Potter’s Tale
On display in the South Gallery at the Columbia Art League
March 4 - march 30, 2024
ARTIST STATEMENT
I explore the joy of inheriting the legacy of a 150-year-old heritage family farm and historical Scandinavian folk traditions. My forms echo the rich practice of working the land: soft-formed, curving clay walls reminiscent of rolling hills, carved ridges like plow-scraped fields, meet gentle, undulating wave-like rims. Working with my body is a sacred experience. Using a kickwheel is an intuitive, meditative encounter. My feet propel the wheel, capturing the slow, rhythmic movement of my legs juxtaposed by the sharp vertical textures in the form. As I toil with my hands in the clay, I contemplate my ancestors laboring with their hands in the earth, wood, stone, and bone. Researching Scandinavian decorative folk traditions from the 1700s and historical objects from the Viking age, I reconnect with my heritage apart from the stories told by a tight-knit family steeped in tradition, dogma, and expectations of conformity.
I ruminate on the qualities of touch as the work goes through the process of an atmospheric firing. As the physical flame billows, rolls, and swells, it scars the surface revealing how the work was marked. I celebrate qualities of touch found in the kiln and everyday common experiences. Through day-to-day use, the user is pleasantly surprised by the work, connecting with and finding joy through simple encounters. My work unites the farmer and the academic at a common table, evoking a timeless truth: the glorious can be found in the mundane, and the divine in the common.
ARTIST BIO
Eric Ordway was born and raised near Columbia, MO. He was first exposed to pottery while attending school at Moberly Area Community College in 2006. Eric continued to study clay at Colorado State University-Pueblo. After graduating with his BFA in 2013, Eric began working as a post-baccalaureate student at the University of Missouri (MU). While there, he made soda-fired pottery while researching green glazing and sgraffito techniques.
In 2015, Eric was awarded a residency at the Morean Center for Clay in St. Petersburg, FL. During this time, Eric also taught ceramics to students at Berkeley Preparatory School, where he discovered his passion for teaching. Eric then returned to MU to earn his MFA in 2019, where he researched thrown and altered techniques that he continues to practice in his studio.
After graduating, Eric went on to teach ceramics at Truman State University for three years. During this time, he also worked at Access Arts, a local nonprofit art organization in Columbia, MO, as the Department Head of Ceramics. Some of his most recent accomplishments includes being selected as a 2023 Ceramics Monthly Emerging Artist, he was one of 21 artists to receive this recognition from 760 national and international entries, and being selected to exhibit at the 2023 & 2024 NCECA Annual Exhibitions.
Eric exhibits his work at the regional, national, and international levels. He currently works at the University of Missouri’s School of Visual Studies as the Fine Arts Technician & Adjunct Professor and lives in Columbia, MO with his wife, Chelsea, and their dog, Lily.
