Kansas City Artist, Professor Visits Art Department

Linna Jones
Commentary Editor

Photo by Latoya Shelton

Guest Lecture - Artist and professor Steve Roberts of Kansas City, Mo. stopped by the art classes to give a guest lecture on pottery. Roberts teaches at the Foundation Program for the Kansas City Art Institute.

   An artist and professor from the Kansas City Art Institute visited the art classes and showed students slides of his work and parts of his life Feb. 16.

   Steve Roberts, from Kansas City, Mo., teaches at the Foundation Program for the Kansas City Art Institute.  He showed students slides from graduate school, pottery he made, pottery of undergraduate and graduate students, kilns he made as graduate students and for classes and other parts of his life.

   He first earned a bachelor’s of Fine Arts in figure painting and changed to pottery. He started making pottery 20 years ago in high school. He began pursuing it seriously after 1990.

   He started graduate school at Arkansas State University in 1994, but changed to the University of Maryland a year later.  He designed a soda kiln and helped build it with fellow students.

   He showed students pieces he created while in graduate school and explained how he used faceting as a way to enhance the look of the pottery. He said he played around with different kinds of pieces.

   He showed sugar jars, plates, teapots and other types of ceramic ware. He presented pictures of his master of Fine Arts thesis show he created in 1998. He addressed in his thesis the concept of sets including sets of plates, cups and serving sets. He showed examples of two sets such as a coffee set and bourbon set.

   In 1998, he worked on a piece 16 inches high in Minnesota. He said he tends not to work on very large scales.  

   He met Scott Lykens, University of Arkansas-Monticello assistant professor of Art, at the Watershed Center for Ceramic Arts at New Castle, Maine. He worked at Bowling Green State University in the Kiln building; he described the building having a “giant salt kiln.” He described other kilns at the university such as a gas kiln and a fuel burning kilns. He said each kiln has its own personality.

   “It was really rich in kilns,” Roberts said.

   He traveled to Sabao, China to stay for seven weeks in the summer of 2001. He worked on a funded fellowship to do glaze research and said that most potters buy glaze already made from a glaze store. He showed pictures of the location, studio and a steam-driven hammer mill.  One picture showed a potter creating a traditional coil pot to be used for storage.  He said the potter created one pot after another in a very short time.

   He talked about a show called “The Kansas City Pot.” He described the exhibit as an idea to show variety of student-made work. The 10 people came together again for “Revisiting the Kansas City Pot” in 2007 and consisted of current work the members of the group created such as teapots, bowls and other pieces.

   He showed reduction jars he made in 2004 and in 2006; lower bowls - which were 8-inches to 10-inches wide, a platter with a hollow rim and a plate with a design reference to Islamic tile - but not actually Islamic.

   Robertson showed student work as well and told what the former students moved on to do. He gave students the chance to see work from 2005 –2006, a ceramics I class from two students from 2007, a sculpture from game designer Ginger Nelson from 2007 and others.

   Lykens said seeing different perspectives helps students.

   “The students need to see as many perspectives as possible to become well-rounded thinkers,” Lykens said. 

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