American,
b. 1954
Earth Fish
1982
Stoneware
5 x 22 x 9 in.
Gift of the artist
1984.1630
When Alan Bennett was five, he caught a bluegill. He thought it was so beautiful that he kept it in his pocket where his mother found it several days later when she did the laundry. ‘Hooked’ on fish ever since, Bennett’s initial work did not feature fish, however you begin seeing them in the early 1980s. His process begins with a series of sketches, then the form is manipulated, hollowed out; and teeth and eyes are added. Though Earth Fish is earthenware, his current work is either high fire stoneware or porcelain.
Alan Bennett was born in 1954, one of five children in a rural area in New Jersey where he loved to fish, ride horses and make art. As a painting major, he happened to choose a ceramics class that captured his interest. The vastness of the ceramics field and the spontaneity possible in handling the material fit Alan Bennett’s personality and thirst for challenges. Alan received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in drawing and painting from Arizona State University in 1976 and an Master of Fine Arts in Ceramics from Ohio State University in 1980. He was Assistant Professor of Ceramics at Utah State University (USU) from 1980-1984. Alan left USU to work as a designer and technical consultant for El Palomar Ceramics in Talaquepaque, Jalisco, Mexico. Since 1990, Alan and his wife have been full-time clay artists working in their own studio in Bath, New York.
Billie Sessions, PhD.
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