Mark Skudlarek

medium: ceramics

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Serving Bowl with Oribe 2005 Ceramics	Oribe Vase 2005 Ceramics	Small Mug 2006 Ceramics
Serving Bowl 2006 Ceramics	Pitchers with Oribe and Manganese 2006 Ceramics	Mug with Celadon 2007 Ceramics
Dinner Plate with Flashing 2006 Ceramics	Tall Vase with Ash Glaze 2006 Ceramics	Dinner Plate with Temoku and Verona 2008 Ceramics
Oribe Teapot 2008 Ceramics

Contact information
10 Tranquil Lane
Cambridge, WI 53523
Phone Number: 608-423-4507
Email Address: markskud@verizon.net
Web site: www.curatedceramics.com/mark-skudlarek.html

Artist statement
What is it that draws a child to the simple activity of playing in mud and fire? This desire, which seems to be woven into our genetic hardware, is what first drew me to working with clay. Dirt seems to have always been driven under my fingernails, and I loved it.

For the last 25 years I have made functional pots inspired by European and Far Eastern traditions working with local material and firing in large wood-burning kilns. I currently fire two to three times a year followed by a kiln-opening sale. These long throwing cycles have allowed for gradual evolution of my work, the foundation of which is form, function and simplicity. My hope is that my pots will become a welcome friend during morning coffee or an evening meal, not demanding of your attention but rather enhancing ones life aesthetic.

Biography
Born in 1959 and raised on a dairy farm in central Minnesota near a town that Public Radio icon, Garrison Keillor called, “most Wobegonic," I was taught at a very early age to cherish the earth. That lesson was reinforced by accompanying my mother on her spring pilgrimage to gather soil to be blessed before spring planting.

In 1977, I was introduced to pottery while attending St. Johns University in Collegeville, Minn., and in 1981 I traveled to the small traditional pottery village of La Borne, France, to pursue my interest in wood-firing. After two years, I returned to the United States to apprentice with Todd Piker at the Cornwall Bridge Pottery in Cornwall, Conn. In 1988, my wife Gaea and I moved to Cambridge, Wis., to establish, Cambridge Wood-fired Pottery. Predominantly, my work is sold and used locally although I have exhibited and sold nationally and internationally.