Christopher St. John’s work touches on the impact of place on the shape of our lives, the luck we have in living on a planet with a biosphere, the vocabulary of form, the figure, and impermanence. Animals make regular appearances in his work. His art has been exhibited and collected across the United States and internationally in France, Sweden, Japan, Canada, and Malta. He received his BFA from the University of Alaska at Fairbanks. His art is in the permanent collections of two American museums.
James De Rosso received his college degree in Graphic Design but spent a great deal of his art electives in the ceramic studio. After college, he started working in advertising but ceramics is what he would be doing at night on his own time. A ceramics commission job forced him to step away from his advertising job and start up a professional ceramic studio.
The specific niche of creating monsters all began when he would make small guardian creatures that he placed on top of the kiln to ward off bad results during firings. Friends wanted those creatures more than what was coming out of the kiln.
He’s enjoying the whole monster making niche and the kind of people that are attracted to it.
He has now been making and teaching ceramics for over 20 years. He finds it amazingly gratifying to be doing ceramics full time and especially to be a teacher introducing kids to the joy of clay.
