Studio Art

Kevin Flicker

Ceramics Teaching Specialist BA, University of Minnesota, Morris            1974 Apprenticeship, St. John’s Pottery, St. John’s University, Collegeville, MN     1985 Contact Info: Office HFA 140 Phone: (320) 589-6248 E-mail: flickkr@morris.umn.edu Classes Taught ArtS 1039   Ceramics I (community ed) ArtS 1040   Ceramics II (community ed) ArtS 1050   Beginning Ceramics ArtS 2050   Advanced Ceramics ArtS 3003   Tilemaking ArtS 3008   Woodfired Kiln Design and Construction

Biography

Kevin Flicker is a fourth generation Minnesotan who was born in St. Cloud in 1952 and grew up in Rochester.  In 1974, after graduating from UMM with degrees in Psychology and English, he enrolled in a ceramics night course and became immediately infatuated with clay.  Over the course of the next ten years he took numerous ceramics courses and workshops from a variety of teachers, but his most influential training was a rigorous apprenticeship served with Master Potter Richard Bresnahan at St. John’s University in 1985.  Since 1987 he has been teaching ceramics courses at UMM.  As a teacher he is committed to a standard of excellence that has led many of his students to continue their studies after UMM in graduate or apprenticeship programs.  While Kevin has exhibited his work throughout the upper midwest, he is primarily interested in producing affordable, high quality functional pots for the local population using local natural materials.  In 2001 he was awarded a Distinguished Teaching Award from the College of Continuing Education.  In the summer of 2003, along with a group of current and former UMM students, he built UMM’s first woodfired kiln capable of firing stoneware and porcelain. He lives in Morris with his wife Judy in a Craftsman-style timber framed home that he built himself using numerous recycled materials.

Artist Statement

It is difficult to name all the influences on my work. In a sense all the pots I have ever seen have touched me for better or worse. Certainly Korean and Japanese folk pottery, especially Karatsu pots, have been pivotal. Native American pots have also left a strong mark. I must also acknowledge the rich heritage of functional Minnesota stoneware, particularly during the last half-century. I am especially indebted to my good friend and mentor Richard Bresnahan for sharing his passion for clay and life itself.

Though primarily trained as a production thrower, I am also deeply attracted to handbuilt ceramic forms, which I often make in series. Just as on the potter’s wheel, when I make multiple handbuilt forms, the important elements of that form begin to slowly reveal themselves. As I explore variations within successive sets of series, I draw closer to the essence of that particular form. Certain forms intrigue me enough that I return to them again and again, honing them down over the years as they continue to evolve, however subtly.

My forms tend to be simple and without excess ornamentation. I am deeply committed to functional ceramics, though my clay forms occasionally stretch this genre to the limit. Sometimes concessions to the demands of form are made at the expense of function. For example, the profile of a certain lidded jar may require that the opening be too small for the hand to comfortably enter. Or perhaps the size and weight of a wall vase may preclude convenience in changing the water for the bouquet. Yet I always refer to my clay forms as “pots”, and they always contain references to the vessel, and thus function. The roots of ceramic art are contained in the vessel.

I strive for my pots to have a certain timeless quality. I am not interested in fleeting ceramic trends. I have a great respect for ceramic tradition but do not feel that old forms should be blindly reproduced for tradition’s sake. If historical ceramic forms have contemporary relevance then they are fair game for appropriate modern interpretation.

The use of local natural materials is important to me. Living on the prairie in west central Minnesota, I have searched for a suitable native clay to use as the base for a refractory clay body, but intense glaciation in the region has resulted in native clays that are contaminated with various mineral fluxes, bringing down the firing range. However, the local clay functions well as a slip glaze, yielding a beautiful green/gold glaze when used by itself over a stoneware body. Combining this local clay with other native clays or still other local materials such as the ashes from indigenous trees or grasses, yields an extensive glaze palette. Because of this reliance on local materials, my pots hopefully reflect the region in which they were made.