Pictured at top: porcelain teapot, Paul Dresang, 1997. At bottom: covered earthenware jar, Ron Meyers, 2002.
Owned by Matthew Wilt, Associate Professor of Art (Ceramics)

The works I own may inform my work in a peripheral way. The phrase ‘an object of contemplation’ sounds kind of pretentious, but I do think on many levels we do ponder and investigate and scrutinize objects.  We just don’t put that label to it, and say “I’m contemplating this object.” But you look at it, you enjoy it, you study it, you experience it.  Periodically you lift it up and look at the underside and you can feel and see how the material’s been handled.  I think that it all seeps in subconsciously because you’re around it.

About Dresang and Meyers pieces:

The Dresang is really hyper-crafted. It’s like a super object, so refined and so crafted. It’s really kind of a spectacle, which is one of the things about it that is really awe-inspiring….And Meyers is known for the exact opposite of Dresang’s work – a much looser, more gestural, aesthetic.  When I show this type of work to students, I make the point that the dents and hand marks aren’t mistakes. That’s all information that’s consciously left behind. It shows that the material was at one time soft and pliable, and now it’s hard and fossilized.
Matt Wilt, 2012