Porcelain And Bizen: A New Ceramic Landscape

A Talk by West Coast Artist, Ceramist, And Landscape Architect Ron Wigginton

"Early work was a result of study with the ceramist Rudy Autio and the poet Richard Hugo at the University of Montana (BFA), and with the theoretician Jack Wilkinson at the University of Oregon (MFA). In the 70’s I taught painting and sculpture at the Cornish School of Art in Seattle. There, along with Albert Fisher and Charles Stokes, our generation’s search for meaning formed a “third wave” of Pacific Northwest art. This period included exhibitions at Portland and Seattle galleries and museums, with my work represented by the Foster/White Gallery.

A decade later after time in Japan, my work branched into landscape architecture and received international recognition as Ron Wigginton/Land Studio. This large-scale work expanded that early quest for content and meaning into actual built landscapes. The 80’s and 90’s continued representation and solo shows on the West Coast, along with teaching at various Universities. During this time I remained in close contact with Northwest artist friends Mary Randlett, Robert Yarber, Albert Fisher, Kenneth Snelson, JB Blunk, and Philip McCracken.  

At the millennium I focused once again on painting in extended series. This period included a Morris Graves Fellowship in Morris’ Loleta studio at “The Lake”, and a subsequent museum solo show. These works brought together the myriad ideas began earlier and brought into focus through the built landscape. I returned to Bellingham and the Pacific Northwest, and for the last three years have turned from landscape architecture and painting to focus exclusively on series of ceramic landscape sculptures."