Steven Skinner
BlackTree Studio Pottery
Contemporary Sculpted Stoneware & Porcelain Pottery"
16 inch sculpted & unglazed stoneware platter Making Pottery is the most fun I’ve had making Art."
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Employing wheel-throwing, hand building and spontaneous sculpting techniques and combining colored and toned stoneware with marbled and inlayed porcelain, with glazes that enhance the clay’s color, form and texture, I create one-of-a-kind pottery that reflects my training as a fine artist: my attraction to painting, printmaking, sculpture, and my interest in the unearthed artifacts from ancient cultures along with concepts found in American Regionalism, Dada, and Pop Art."
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Although my pottery is functional -- the bowl, the teapot, the canister -- its form is organic, personal and distinctively contemporary.
 
Stoneware & porcelain Patty Pan Canister and Lid" 6 x 4 inches
Stoneware & Porcelain Melon Jug" 8 x 6 inches
Stoneware Wrapped Bowl" 6 x10 inches dia.
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Stoneware & Rock Jug" 6 x 6 inches
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" Stoneware & Porcelain Bookend" 8 x 6 inches
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Stoneware Canister & Lid" 8 x 6 inches
" Stoneware & Porcelain Rock jug" 6 x 6 inches
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Stoneware & Rock jug" 6 x 6 inches
Stoneware TerraFirma Vase #2055" 9 x 6 inches dia."
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" " " " Stoneware Wrapped Bowl #2191" 9 inches dia.
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" " " " Stoneware Wrapped Bowl #2195" 10 inches dia.
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I grew up in a small rural community in northern Illinois, studied and graduated from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago where I studied Printmaking, painting, and drawing. " My career as an artist spans more than 25 years, my passion for pottery began recently though when I began making pottery at LillStreet Art Center in Chicago. I did so in part because of my experience at The Field Museum of Chicago where, employed as an exhibit preparator, I worked with artifacts and custom-fit artifact mounts that required an appreciation of each artifact’s uniqueness. I was especially drawn to the Field Museum’s outstanding collection of Mayan pottery, which, I often sketched during lunch. When I began to study pottery at LillStreet Art Center the lasting impact of those beautiful, ancient objects began to influence and inform my art." Early in my career, I painted in oil and encaustic, but the desire to work in more challenging mediums led me to experiment with watercolors which I discovered brought spontaneity and expressiveness to my work. " From 1988 to 2006, I worked exclusively in watercolors: my first series, (1989-1999), focused on Chicago’s viaducts, roadways, and bridges; a subsequent watercolor series (1999-2002), combined interior architecture with with tropical plants found in Chicago botanical conservatories. From 2003-2008 I painted The LIttle Things, a watercolor series of objects selected for their shape, color, patina, and personal or social significance and rendered representationally, though I enhanced each object’s qualities to subtly change their original character." While making art, I have also devoted time to teaching painting and drawing at Columbia College Chicago, and The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, as well as Indiana University South Bend. During the summer of 2006 I taught watercolor painting in Florence, Italy for Columbia College Chicago in conjunction with Santa Repartee International School of Art. My pottery studio and kiln is located in rural northwestern Indiana, where my wife and I make our home."
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