In Harmony showing at Robert E. Wilson Gallery
FOR RELEASE: Sunday, February 10, 2002
Huntington, Ind. "The Robert E. Wilson Gallery of the Merillat Centre of the Arts at Huntington College hosts In Harmony, a ceramic exhibit by Bob Howell. The exhibition will be displayed from February 11-March 8, 2002. Admission is free and the gallery is open to the public weekdays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and before all Merillat Centre performances. An all-day artist workshop followed by an artist reception in the evening will be held on March 8. Bob Howell, Professor of Art at Louisiana College in Pineville, La., was born in New Orleans in 1947. He earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in painting and a Master of Fine Arts degree in ceramics from Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. Howell first became interested in ceramics as a senior in college.
From the first time I touched clay, squeezing it and forming it, I was hooked, said Howell. I've always liked to do things with my hands, and I guess that fulfilled this need. I also felt as if I had found my home. I was completely in love with the clay from the first minute.
In the thirty-two years Howell has worked with clay, he has felt a thirst to seek new ways of expressing himself through the clay. In this pursuit, his work has taken many forms, from utilitarian pottery to trompe-l oiel sculpture, much of it dealing with anti-nuclear and pro-environmental subjects.
In recent years, Howell has returned to making primarily utilitarian pottery with soda-fired and ash-glazed surfaces. It is almost exclusively thrown on the potter's wheel and then altered from it's originally round, symmetrical form.
My work has become very earthy and rustic in nature, said Howell. In a way, it's a need to get back to my roots, but it also goes much deeper than that. It has to do with humankind's roots as well, and our long tradition of living from earth, and in harmony with the earth.
Howell's work has been in Dallas, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Miami Beach, Houston and most other major cities in the United States. He has work in the collections of Malcolm Forbes, Van Cliburn, Federated Department Stores and other private and public collections.
For further information about the exhibit and the all-day artist workshop on March 8, contact Huntington College art professor Rebecca Coffman at (260) 359-4272.
Huntington College is comprehensive Christian college of the liberal arts offering graduate and undergraduate programs in more than 50 academic concentrations. US News and World Report ranks Huntington among the best in the Midwest. Founded in 1897 by the Church of the United Brethren in Christ, Huntington College is located on a contemporary, lakeside campus in Huntington, Indiana.
