The Belltower
Samford University
Events
-
Arts
News
Snapshot
Alumni
October 6, 2010
Ceramics Exhibit Features Art of Bob Howell
The Samford Art Gallery is featuring ceramics by artist Bob Howell through Oct. 27. Howell has taught ceramics for more than 30 years at schools in Texas and Louisiana.
In that time Howell has felt a thirst to seek new ways of expressing himself through the clay. “I’ve always wanted to look just over the horizon to see what was therem,” he said. In this pursuit his work has taken many forms, from utilitarian pottery to trompe l'oiel sculpture, much of it dealing with anti-nuclear and pro-environmental themes.
In recent years Howell has returned to making primarily utilitarian forms with mainly soda-fired and ash-glazed surfaces. It is almost exclusively thrown on the potter’s wheel and then altered from its originally round, symmetrical form. “My work has become very earthy and rustic in nature," Howell said. "In a way it’s a need to get back to my roots, but it also goes much deeper than that. It has to do with humankind’s roots as well, and our long tradition of living from the earth, and in harmony with the earth.”
Howell’s work has been shown in Dallas, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Miami Beach, Houston, and most other major cities in the United States. He has work in the collections of Malcolm Forbes, Van Cliburn, Federated Department Stores, and other private and public collections.
Samford Art Gallery is open weekdays 9 a.m.-4 p.m.
Learn More
Samford's Visual Arts Department
