Artist Statement
My love affair with ceramics began forty years ago as an Oceanography student. I enrolled in ceramics as a required art class and was immediately seduced by wheel throwing and the internal focus it demanded. I remain enamored with the process of constructing, decorating, and transforming materials through heat. I continue to be excited by the prospects of a freshly fired kiln.
The forms I choose are minimal and often secondary to the surface. Currently the brush is the most important instrument in my toolbox. With the layering of glaze and repeated firings the forms become “fired paintings”. I also utilize fused glass in pursuit of these abstract images.
The opaque transparency of the material is important for its lightness and lack of visual density. In both ceramic and glass the textured surface contradicts the likable wetness of glaze. The bright color is for happiness on a gray Portland day.
Bio
Over forty years ago Thomas Orr took ceramics as a required art class during his studies in Oceanography. For a decade he lived in the foothills of northern California where he dug clay and wood fired pots formed on a potters wheel he created from the axle of an abandoned automobile. Moving to a small college town he worked as a studio potter while performing the duties of a ceramic technician in the local state college. At the end of the ’80’s Thomas attended the Claremont Graduate School earning an MFA. The next years were spent traveling the country teaching sabbatical replacement jobs and building his studio practice. In 1995 he came to Portland to head the ceramics program at the Oregon College of Art and Craft from which he recently retired. In 2013, the Oregon College of Art and Craft awarded Thomas Emeritus status. Along with continuing an active studio practice he is collaborating with his wife, Joanna, to establish the Ash Street Project Emerging Artist Mentorship Program at their Portland studio.
