Applied Design :: Ceramics
The Ceramics program is part of the Applied Design emphasis in the Art major. It offers students the opportunity to work with both hand-built and thrown forms, low-fire and high-fire techniques, and functional and sculptural images. The use of other media with clay is encouraged whenever it is appropriate to the content of the work. The traditions of the craft of ceramics are emphasized along with contemporary art issues and current themes. The program includes a balanced program in clay as an art medium focused on skillful manipulation of materials along with conceptual issues. Classes are offered in basic methods of forming, decorating, glazing and firing pottery forms with emphasis on the use of the potter's wheel, as well as classes in the design and construction of hand-built ceramic forms.
| Undergraduate Program | Graduate Program |
| Area Facilities | Faculty Bios |
| Student Gallery | Faculty Gallery |
Undergraduate Program
The Ceramics area is fully committed to giving students a broad education in both the conceptual and technical aspects of the field. This includes fostering awareness in students of the conceptual and aesthetic course of the contemporary art world in general, and the smaller subset specific to the ceramics arts. It is the emphasis' goal to have committed students who leave the program with the skills necessary to survive as artists in the world outside academia. The emphasis also encourages the best and most committed students to consider continuing their education at the graduate level at other institutions.
The ceramics area presents each student with the opportunity to learn the major contemporary, historical, and technical aspects of of the ceramic arts. Craft traditions which are covered include throwing, handbuilding, moldmaking, glaze and firing techniques (stoneware, lowfire, raku, majolica, salt, wood, saggar, luster), and glaze technology.
A student's development within the ceramics program involves a process of layering technical, aesthetic and conceptual information. As it is generally required for students to have taken two- and three- dimensional design and drawing as prerequisites, most of the students are sophomores when entering at the beginning level in ceramics. Beginning courses focus heavily on technical skills and physical manipulation of the media. One course is devoted entirely to handbuilding and the other course focuses primarily on throwing. The intermediate course has a more conceptual focus while also introducing students to clay mixing, kiln firing skills, and more advanced manipulations of the clay. The advanced course encourages students to hone their individual aesthetic expressions. The emphasis also offers a Clay and Glaze Technology course which helps students to fine tune their use of the media through chemistry and empirical analysis. When all courses have been taken, students are encouraged to pursue independent studies to refine personal directions.
The SDSU Ceramic Arts Association, a student-run organization, helps to fund and make decisions about extracurricular activities. The student organization supports a visiting artist program or lectures and critiques and workshops by artists who are nationally and internationally known. The organization also provides a well-stocked library of current periodicals and purchases books on technical, aesthetic and safety information.
Click here for the Ceramics (Applied Design) Checklist (requires Adobe Acrobat Reader)
Graduate Program
The SDSU Ceramics program is devoted to the development of independent attitudes in clay in a three-year MFA program. The program focuses on developing a mature approach to art, involving both skillful manipulation of materials and strong attention to conceptual issues. Graduate students are expected to work toward discovering their own personal direction which highlights each individual's potential. A variety of alternatives to forms and surfaces are offered: slip molds, underglazes, low fire glazes, lusters, china paints, decals, and raku, soda, wood and saggar firing are among the possibilities. Graduate students are encouraged to explore the use of other materials in addition to clay when appropriate to their work. Gallery space is available in the School of Art for individual and group shows of graduate work. Tuition waivers are available on a limited basis in conjunction with graduate lab assistantships.
One of the strong points of the SDSU Ceramics program is the Visiting Artist Program. At least two, and often four or more visiting artists are scheduled for the ceramics area each year. Visiting artists in ceramics in the last few years include: Beverly Mayeri, Walter McConnell, Susan Beiner, Akio Takamori, Jeff Oestreich, Adrian Arleo, Peter Beasecker, Adrian Saxe, Judy Moonelis, Chris Staley, Linda Arbuckle, Tony Hepburn, Tre Arenz, Don Reitz, Kathy Royster, Richard Shaw, Aurore Chabot, Eddy Dominguez, Sandy Simon, Robert Brady, and Patti Warashina.
Click here for more information on SDSU Studio Art Graduate Programs.
Distinguished Alumni
Jeff Irwin, Grossmont Community College
Eric Van Eimeren, Exhibits at Garth Clark Gallery, New York
Mark Messenger, Diablo Valley College
Diane Eisenbach, Monterey Peninsula College
Hiroshi Fuchigami, Santa Rosa Junior College
Kathy Ornish, St. Mary's College, South Bend, Indiana
Craig Bachman, Framington State College, Massachusetts; Kohler Arts
& Industry Technical Coordinator
Area Facilites
SDSU has a spacious well-organized facility that easily accommodates a large group of people working in diverse modes. There are six individual spaces available for graduate students in large studios, each shared by two to three graduate students. The ceramics shop includes two spacious open studios in addition to the graduate spaces, and a well-equipped glaze lab and computers for glaze calculation. A large outdoor courtyard provides a space for sculpture installations and critiques.
The facilities include several types of kick wheels and electric wheels, de-airing pug mill, clay mixer, slab roller, extruders, slip casting facilities, two thirty cubic foot computer controlled gas kilns, a ninety cubic foot gas kiln, nine electric kilns (seven of which ard computer controlled), gas and electric test kilns, two wood-burning kilns, a sodium-vapor kiln, raku and saggar kilns, smoke firing area, plus areas to build experimental kilns.
Thanks to San Diego's pleasant climate, a variety of outdoor activities, including all types of firing, can easily continue year-round. Interested students and guests are welcome to visit and tour the studio, located on the first floor of the Art Building. SDSU is located on a beautiful mesa-top campus minutes from beaches and a short drive from mountain and desert regions and the Mexican border. The many art galleries and museums of Los Angeles are only about two hours drive away.
Faculty Bios
Richard Burkett
Richard Burkett has been a ceramist for over 30 years, starting with a ten-year career as a studio potter, running the Wild Rose Pottery in central Indiana. He earned his MFA in 1986 from Indiana University-Bloomington. After teaching three years at the University of Wisconsin-Madison he moved to San Diego State University, where he is currently a Professor of Art. His work hovers between pottery and sculpture. Some pieces move in a sculptural direction, yet still derive some of their form from vestiges of more functional work. His work has been shown in many exhibitions in the U.S. and internationally. He is the author of HyperGlaze™ software for glazes and the co-author with Glenn Nelson of the popular textbook Ceramics: A Potter's Handbook, 6th edition.
Joanne Hayakawa
Joanne Hayakawa received her BA from the University of California, Santa Barbara and MFA from the University of Washington. She has taught at the California State University, Los Angeles, The University of South Florida, Pitzer College, California State University, Long Beach and for the last 20 years has been at SDSU. Her work is sculptural and often involves 2D surfaces and mixed media. She has also been involved in public art. In the past, I have used known architecture and historical structures and made references to body parts and gestures. While issues of known structures are still important, the body parts are engaging more with plant forms, terrain and ordinary household “stuff”, specifically, found, domestic ceramics. Detritus and used found objects are also used. The focus is on certain momentary connections between the individual and the built, natural and personal environment. Those connections require a sensitivity or instinctual response to a very industrial/mechanized society.