Check out William Beisser’s Artwork

Today we’d like to introduce you to William Beisser.

William, we’d love to hear your story and how you got to where you are today both personally and as an artist.
I’m a transplant from Galesburg, Illinois and I have been teaching ceramics and art mostly in the Paradise Valley School District for the past 18 years. My home town is Fort Dodge, Iowa and I attended Cornell College in Mt. Vernon, Iowa as a music major. I took a ceramic class my sophomore year, and I immersed myself in art, mostly ceramics. I did four years of art in 2 years. My instructor and friend was Doug Hansen who is a founding member for “Potters for Peace”. I did many individual tutorials with Doug, and as a junior, I spent that entire summer learning how to fire all the school’s kilns by myself. I was the only student who had keys to the ceramic building and the kiln room at my time at Cornell. During my senior year in 1983, I spent the month of January studying ceramic techniques in southern England. I worked in a local pottery and spent most of my time studying ancient ceramics at the British and Victoria and Albert museums in London. I crossed the channel to France, and I spent a week in Paris at the Louvre, studying sculpture. I graduated in the spring of 83′ from Cornell College in Mt. Vernon, Iowa with “Honors with Distinction” in ceramics. I continued my education in ceramics, and I enrolled at Southern Illinois University and Carbondale Illinois. I studied with Harris Deller for a year, and I moved over to the glass program to study with Bill Boysen who at studied glass with Harvey Littleton at the University of Madison, Wisconsin.

I graduated from Southern Illinois University with my Master’s of Fine Arts in 1987, and I started my own stained glass business which lasted for nine years. I created custom stained glass windows, Tiffany styled stained glass lamps, taught classes in lead came, and copper foil techniques and I sold supplies.

I moved out to Phoenix in 2000, and I went to work at Central High School as I studied to receive my teaching certificate from the University of Phoenix.

Two years later, I ended up going to South Korea and then onto Beijing, China to study Asian ceramic techniques for around two weeks and I met a lot of wonderful artists. This past January, I took a ceramic workshop with Quijas Yxayotl to learn how to create Aztec Ceramic Flutes, and I learned a lot from him.

I have been teaching ceramics at Paradise Valley High School for the past eight years, and I am currently constructing a ceramic studio for myself, so I can create and explore the many facets of clay.

We’d love to hear more about your art. What do you do and why and what do you hope others will take away from your work?
I have been working with cone four ceramics for most of my life. I like to hand-build with clay to create sculptural animals and figures that are Asian influenced. I also use the wheel to create Asian inspired ceramic containers which I add hand-built details of branches, leaves, and acorns of the burr oak tree. I have also been creating Aztec ceramic flutes. I don’t like to be tied down to just one genre of ceramics. I love infusing my ceramic work with other cultures and historical examples. I create because I need to. I’m either drawing or researching ancient cultures and their ceramic images which inspires me, and I infuse those images with my own.
I hope that people will be inspired by my work and wonder, “where does he get all these ideas for his work” and “how does he do it?” Most of my ceramic pieces are one of a kind, and I’m inspired by nature and other ancient cultures. My pieces are fired to a medium fire stoneware, and they will last for hundreds of years.

Do current events, local or global, affect your work and what you are focused on?
I believe that the role of the artist has changed over the years, I have witnessed this and the influences of today’s’ chaotic nature have made an impacted on them and me. With all these events happening at all levels throughout our society, I have designed my ceramic pieces to create a calming reflection, where a person can step out of all the chaos that surrounds them, and be inspired by nature, form, and creativity.

Do you have any events or exhibitions coming up? Where would one go to see more of your work? How can people support you and your artwork?
Right now, my work will be on display at our annual faculty art show at the Paradise Valley District Office, Monday, May 13 through Thursday, May 16 with a reception from 5:30 pm to 6:30 pm on May 16th. I’m in the process of getting back into the galleries. I have been raising my son by myself since he was six weeks old when we moved to Phoenix. He is my pride and joy, and he is twenty and an amazing young man. It was important to me to spend my time raising him instead of getting my work into the galleries. Now I am gearing up to get back into the galleries with my ceramic studio nearing completion; I will be able to create more work.
This summer, I hope to get my website up and running so people can see my work and watch videos of me throwing and creating my ceramic pieces.

Contact Info:

• Email: sender5523@gmail.com

Image Credit:
William Beisser

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