Ron Sutterer
My interest in pottery can be traced to my graduate school days in North Carolina. My wife and I often made day long trips to visit some of the traditional farm potteries surrounding Chapel Hill (Cole family, Jugtown, etc.) and started collecting. At the time, making pottery had not occurred to me but I learned to appreciate the form and craft of production. Some years later when we had moved to upstate New York, my wife wanted to set up a small studio in our home and learn how to make pottery. This eventually led to my giving it a try, taking some coursework at Syracuse University where I taught, and getting hooked. It has been full steam ahead since. We now live in an artistically rich environment (Floyd, Viginia) and I have put together a complete studio with a number of kilns that allow me to create pretty much anything that I can imagine. Living among so many quality potters has enabled me to get technical help as well as encouragement.
I have been drawn to two forms of glazing that are used in most of my work: ash glazes fired in a gas reduction environment and crystalline glazes fired in a well controlled electric kiln. Both forms of glazing have presented numerous challenges, but I appreciate the beauty of both and continue to explore the possibilities of each.
My goal for the coming year, five years, is the same as it has always been since I started: constant experimenting and production to increase the quality of my work. Ceramics is an activity that requires a long view in order to deal with the many mistakes that occur along the way. Although frustrating, the mistakes are part of the learning process.