Ohio
artist Jack Earl has had a long and remarkable career lived for the most part
in the region where he was born and raised. His off-beat ceramic narratives
are frequently based on his rural Ohio experience and often revolve around
a recurrent figure, an archetypical rural character named Bill.
Born in Uniopolis, Ohio in 1934, Jack Earl received a BA degree in 1956 from Bluffton College, Ohio. After teaching in the public schools in New Bremen, Ohio Jack completed the MA degree at Ohio State University in 1964. He then taught art education and ceramics at the Toledo Museum School of Design for several years. While there he was introduced to the world of European figurative ceramics through illustrated books in the Toledo Museum’s library. He was especially attracted to the painted porcelain figures manufactured at Meissen in the 18-19th centuries. This work inspired him to create his own figurative porcelains, but instead of portraying European aristocrats, he depicted scenes and people drawn from his own imagination and the rural Ohio world he had grown up in. It was with the inclusion of this work in the exhibition Objects U.S.A. at the Smithsonian in 1969 that he entered into the national scene.
During the years 1972 - 1978 he was Associate Professor of Art at Virginia Commonwealth University and involved in a vigorous ongoing exhibition schedule resulting in representation in major galleries in New York, Chicago, San Francisco and Atlanta. Jack Earl has also been the recipient of numerous award and grants -- in 1997 he was made a Fellow of the American Craft Council; 1990 an Honorary Member of the National Council on the Education of Ceramic Arts; 1988 National Endowment of the Arts Award; 1976 Grant from the Kohler Company, Artist in Industry Program.
In 1978 Earl returned to Ohio, where he continues to live and create his
whimsical and sometimes weird, but always exquisitely crafted, ceramic art.
Jack Earl will attend the Opening Reception for the 17th San Angelo National
Ceramic Competition which takes place on Friday evening, April 18, from 6
to 9 pm. Earlier on Friday, from 1:30 to 4:30 pm at the Carr Education-Fine
Arts Building on the Angelo State University Campus, Earl will be a participant
in the 23rd Annual San Angelo Ceramic Symposium along with the juror of the
competition, Anna Harris. The Symposium Coordinator is Esteban Apodaca, Assistant
Professor of Art in ceramics at Angelo State University and Howard Taylor,
Museum director, will serve as the Moderator.
The Invited Artist will conduct a day-long workshop at the Chicken Farm Art Center on Saturday, April 19th from 9 a.m. till 4 p.m. During the workshop the artist will demonstrate his process while discussing sources of his subject matter, design, media control and such processes as coiling, modeling and finishing techniques. The fee for the Saturday workshop is $45.00 ($25.00 for high school and full-time college students). Participants provide their own lunch.
Jack Earl, Self Portrait, clay
Jack Earl, Archie, clay
Jack Earl, Little Sister, clay
For further information on any of the ceramic competition events, please call the museum at 653-3333.
San Angelo Museum
of Fine Arts
One Love Street
San Angelo, Texas 76903
Fax: (325) 658 - 6800
Phone: (325) 653 -
3333
e-mail:
museum@samfa.org