In The News at The Art Center

GRAND JUNCTION — Terry Shepherd threw a slab of clay onto the potter’s wheel, guiding and shaping the clay between his hands while the wheel spun the clay into the shape of a bowl.

Shepherd plans to make his son and daughter-in-law a dinnerware set for their wedding gift.

Shepherd is a ceramic artist, and The Art Center’s artist-in-residence at 1803 N. Seventh St. — a position Shepherd helped create through his years there of teaching classes, and creating and showing his own ceramic works.

After studying ceramics at Mesa College for two years during the 1970s, Shepherd left his native Grand Junction to find a mentor in the Roaring Fork Valley where established artists like Paul Soldner had been working since 1950. And where Shepherd opened his own studio.

“I made a living from just my clay work from 1975 to 1983, full-time in my studio,” Shepherd said.

Shepherd also taught ceramics to Colorado Mountain College students in the Roaring Fork Valley.

“They’d recruit professional artists to teach in their studios. That’s always been part of my income — that part-time teaching,” Shepherd said.

After moving back to Grand Junction in 1983, Shepherd renewed his relationship with The Art Center where he had taught classes while attending Mesa College.

“It was a natural fit to teach here. They had a new studio,” Shepherd said. He brought along his pottery equipment to further develop the studio and curriculum there.

In college, Shepherd learned to be a “complete studio artist” and had acquired all the equipment that goes with having a studio — some of which The Art Center didn’t have — like a mixer.

Shepherd mixes 6 to 8 tons of clay a year at The Art Center for studio use. Half the clay he mixes is recycled from clay scraps.

Before Shepherd came on board at The Art Center, not much clay was recycled; it was all mixed by hand.

“Mixing clay is a chore. It’s work,” Shepherd said. “There’s a substantial amount of chores that need to be done before you can create.”

Shepherd considers himself a “functional potter.” He makes tableware, stoneware, mugs, dinnerware and functional vessels, as well as sculptural vessels “made to look at,” tiles, and some architectural work.

Shepherd shows his work in three to four private galleries statewide, as well as a new gallery in California. Shepherd also enters two or three juried national shows a year and holds an annual one-man show at The Art Center each year.

As artist-in-residence, about 20 percent of Shepherd’s time is spent creating his own works, while the rest of the time he’s mixing clay, making glazes, promoting classes, teaching, building kilns and bringing in outside artists to teach and exhibit work at The Art Center.

“Terry’s the glue that holds the Art Center together,” said Art Center executive director Cheryl McNab. “He’s always the first one to help. He’s totally committed to the place, and we’re just really, really lucky to have him. He is a nationally known, well-respected clay artist.”

A specialty of Shepherd’s is raku — a ceramic process that originated in Japan during the 1500s. The Japanese were looking for a ceramic vessel to use in their Zen Buddhist tea ceremonies, a vessel that reflected principles of natural aesthetics, Shepherd said.

Shepherd began teaching raku workshops at The Art Center in the 1980s, when not many people on the Western Slope was familiar with the fast-firing process. A raku demonstration will take place at The Art Center tonight at 5:30, prior to the First Friday reception at 7 p.m.

“It’s still kind of a rarity,” Shepherd said.

Fire is a big part of being a ceramist, Shepherd said.

“Earth, fire, air and water — ceramics has all of those earth elements,” Shepherd said. “Fire is such a profound element that makes the material permanent.”

Reach Sharon Sullivan at ssullivan@gjfreepress.com.