Directory Mark Johnson
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Mark Johnson

Professor, Program Chair

Dept. : Ceramics

““Ceramics embraces a wide range of exploration from pottery to sculpture. This is important to acquaint students with both the history of ceramics and a full range of contemporary issues. Successful teaching emphasizes that students receive extensive hands‐on experience with the medium. Through one‐on‐one faculty contact and regular group discussion, students learn to clarify and focus their direction. In this setting, each student will grow individually and also become aware that they are part of a larger community. Insight into students’ work is sharpened and refreshed by maintaining an ongoing dialogue with one’s own artwork. The topic of professional career practices should also be an important component of advanced coursework in the medium. Finally, an instructor can establish a tone in the studio of professionalism that is balanced with a sense of humor and compassion that encourages students to work hard and to strive for challenging solutions. It is my desire to combine this tone with the other aspects mentioned above to provide the students with a positive setting for artistic exploration.”

Mark Johnson has been teaching at MECA&D for 28 years. He received his BFA and MFA degrees from Kent State University. His ceramic work explores the relationship between control and chance, which is an important part of the soda firing process. Pottery forms, including vases, jars, teapots, platters, and pouring vessels are surfaced with glazes that interact with the clay body and the soda kiln atmosphere to create a synthesis of material, form, and process. His artwork has been included in over 200 hundred exhibitions in galleries and museums throughout the United States.

Laurels

● Article “Flower Rafts:  Compose and Contain” featured in Pottery Making Illustrated magazine, May/June 2015

● Past artist‐in‐residence at the Archie Bray Foundation and at the Watershed Center for Ceramic Art

● Artist fellowships from the Maine Arts Commission and the New England Foundation for the Arts (NEFA)

Extracurricular

Some of Mark’s interests include learning to play the guitar and mandolin, gardening with flowers and vegetables, hiking, and visiting sites of old architecture and past civilizations. He is also the winner of a blue ribbon for baking apple pie.

Mark's Website