Doug Hanson's
Artist Statement

I believe that most of the elements in an artist’s work can be found in the past.  Thus, it is rare that the artist is the original creator of those elements.  The creative part comes when those influences are combined, based on the artist’s interests and experiences.

For almost four decades I have devoted my art making energies towards works primarily in clay.  I began that career as a sculptor who made a few pots.  However, visiting internationally known potters, plus museums filled with pots while on a one-year Fulbright Teaching Fellowship in England reversed my production completely.  Since that year, with the exception of a 2006 outdoor sculpture commission at Kirkwood Community College in Cedar Rapids, I have made only pottery.  Coming from the functional life of a Midwestern farm family I am sure had a hand in that decision.

Those elements that make up my pots such as the sturdiness of the “Medieval Jug” with its thick rim and substantial base have become part of my pitchers.  The altered rims of my basins and platters are mostly from a 17th Century Japanese Shino Bowl.  Those Western and Eastern influences come together in the earthiness of the soda fumed skin on bare clay exteriors, but with a smooth glaze covering the interior surfaces.  All these elements are put together to hopefully form a cohesive whole, but equally important in my work is the consideration of the function of each as it is to be used in our eating and drinking.

-- Doug Hanson