Artist Research Assignment

To start, Chris Chaney graduated college from Northern Illinois University in 2001 with a BFA — Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree — in ceramics and moved to Chicago to follow his dreams. In Chicago, he decided he pursued his passion and work at a place called Lillstreet Art Center for fifteen years. Within this time, he learned, practiced, and mastered multiple skill sets such as becoming an educator, teaching soda firing classes to the advanced students. He also as time past became better and more comfortable with clay and becoming a leader within the clay/ceramic community. He also has a home studio located in the western suburbs of Chicago.

Clearly, Chris is very talented at working with clay and making a variety beautiful of things, including cups and canteens. It seems to be that he uses the pinch pot method to create these. He also strives to get a surface, “that speak of material degradation.” He does this by trying to do the razzle-dazzle pattern which was actually a theory of a visual disruption used by allied navies during both world wars. He accomplishes this by burning wood in a confined space called “atmospheric firing” which then allows the clay to get the defining red, orange, and gray colors in order to get the material degradation look of rusting steel and using ashen melted glaze to resemble water.

I decided to do this project on Chris Chaney because I thought it was something that we can relate to due to us doing the same method — the pinch pot technique. I also was very interested in the historical context that he is trying, and succeeding, of showing the degrading features that come after years to cups, glasses, and canteens. I was also very intrigued about how he accomplishes these features using a method I never heard of before.