NHSO Art Violin Project on display at: Creative Arts Workshop, 80 Audubon St, New Haven

 

Embrace of Notes & Strings

Michael Bradford
Orange, CT


After earning an MSE at UCONN, Mike moved to New Haven in the early 70's, where he happened to visit a craft show and see a distinctive set of ceramic dinnerware. Impressed by the beauty and quality of handmade stoneware, he soon after enrolled at Creative Arts Workshop (CAW) to begin clay study under the direction of Robert Parrott and David Frank. This instruction led Mike into a lifelong devotion to discovering the technical and artistic potentials of clay. In 1976, as a CAW Studio Potter, he published a guidebook for bisque firing at the pottery. More recently, he developed a software tool for the evaluation of glaze balance & surface properties (1995).

After mastering the technical aspects of claywork, Mike looked for design inspiration from American colonial and Asian functional ware as well as organic forms found in nature. Evolving from there, he was inspired by Greek Attic and 18th century ceramic design, and strives to integrate natural forms with classical ceramic styles in his current work. From a basis of wheel-thrown functional ware, his forming techniques now include combined wheel & hand-formed pieces, and wheel & pulled-form architectural assemblies. His work in assembling multiple thrown, pulled, extruded, and carved elements into larger thematic structures is believed to be unique in the craft, reflecting the sensibilities of a combined engineering and artistic background.

Michael now lives in Orange. Having recently retired from his engineering career, he has rejoined the CAW Studio Potters, and shares the group's studio space at the pottery on Audubon street.