Profile

Mark Gordon  January 2009

A native of Rochester, N.Y., Gordon serves as an associate professor of art at Barton College in Wilson, N.C., where he has taught in the art department since 1999.

Gordon has presented over 100 lectures and workshops in 19 states and seven foreign countries. He has been recognized with numerous awards and grants. He has held numerous art residencies across the nation as well as in Caracas, Venezuela; Cairo, Egypt; Madrid, Spain; Jerusalem, Israel; and La Romana, Dominican Republic.  Gordon was a Fulbright Lecturer at the Facultad de Artes, Universidad Nacional in Obera, Argentina in 1991. Gordon has presented over 100 lectures and workshops in 19 states and 10  foreign countries. He has been recognized with numerous awards and grants.

From 1980 to 1983, Gordon taught at Altos de Chavón in La Romana, Dominican Republic, creating a vocational workshop for local youth. Next, for 18 months, he traveled throughout the Mediterranean observing and documenting traditional pottery and brickmaking.  “Knowing these traditional clay artisans has contributed to my education.  I continue to make ceramic vessels to celebrate and maintain a connection to traditional potters worldwide.”  Gordon had the opportunity to return to the Dominican Republic in fall 2006, invited by the Igneri Foundation to jury the Third International Elit-Tile Ceramics Triennial.

Gordon’s undergraduate studies included Bachelor of Arts degrees in both philosophy and physical education at Oberlin College in Ohio, and his graduate studies culminated in a Master of Fine Arts degree from Ohio State.  Of his educational pathway, Gordon muses, “When you combine Plato with swimming, it can result in unexpected ceramic inspiration.”

 “The physicality of clay, along with its remarkable ability to freeze action and respond to physical impact or retain any fleeting impression, immediately and permanently captured my interest,” says Gordon.  “Clay is a universal medium: potters’ vessels have formed an essential part of material culture.  My work explores inherent properties of clay transformed through the kiln’s incandescent energy. I approach claywork as the creation, pulling form out of inchoate matter, as an ongoing experiment in seeking new direction through variation.” It’s that experimentation with form and surface, combined with an element of mystery, which draws viewers to his work.  “Often, in the vessels, Greek or Chinese forms seem to be echoed in my clay shapes,” Gordon continues.  “In contrast, the non-vessel ceramic pieces may refer to architectural fragments, combined geometries, or biomorphic musings.”

Gordon’s inspiration is often derived from an eclectic mix of nature and plant growth, animal skeletons, machinery, scrap yards, and through his travels.  Gordon sees his artwork as a melding of idea and action, of inspiration and impulse. These days, his favorite piece of artwork in his home is a small stone axe head from the Dominican Republic. He describes the shape as streamlined and smooth, pointing out that the (pre-) history of this object lends a sense of impenetrable mystery.

Gordon’s handbuilding technique was highlighted on the September/October 2008 cover of PotteryMaking Illustrated with his article “Pushing the Envelope” on his process of clay-module wet/dry assembly.  His work has been appeared in American Ceramic; Ceramics Monthly; The New York Times; American Craft;  Clay Times: The Journal of Ceramic Trends and Technique; Ceramica [Spain]; and Ceramics: Art and Perception [Australia].

And, it’s this blend of curiosity and creativity that Gordon brings into his classroom.  Gordon believes that within the academic community, an art program fulfills a vital role in promoting visual literacy while fostering creative exploration and challenging students to question the way the world presents itself to them – it’s a unique opportunity to explore nature and culture.  “From the pyramids in Egypt to the mysterious stone heads in the Easter Islands to Stonehenge, humankind has expended large amounts of human capital to create artworks that say something about how we perceive our place in the world,” shares Gordon.

He  states that “when students engage in the challenge of studying art history and creating their own artwork, they harness the use of imagination, aesthetics, chemistry, coordination, and intellect.  And, when a student’s interests extend to connect science, mathematics, social studies, and reading with the traditional realm of visual art, the opportunity for guided cross-disciplinary research helps a student develop a deeper understanding of all subjects.”

[Exerpted by Kathy Daughety, Public Relations, Barton College, Wilson, North Carolina