Eric Knoche

Originally from Minnesota, Eric studied anthropology in India, poetry in California, and taught ceramics in Thailand.  Towards the end of his time at university he touched clay for the first time and after that could no long imagine doing anything else with his life.  He subsequently worked for two years with ceramist Jeff Shapiro and for six months with Isezaki Jun, Living National Treasure, Bizen, Japan. Eric exhibits and teaches internationally.

“My work is constructed mostly from minimally processed clay straight out of the ground.  All of my work is wood fired and the surfaces are the result of the dynamic interaction of the materials, forms, placement in the kiln, and firing methods. When I make my work, I often feel as though I am excavating my own subconscious. I make things I am curious to see. I have been strongly influenced by languages I don't understand and tools I don't know how to use, male and female figures, machine parts, shelters, math equations, micro-facial movements, the argentine tango, alphabets, the spine and other bones, the distortional nature of memory, the limits of ocular perception, plants, running water, and songbirds.”