Large Lidded Pottery Vessel by Noted Ceramicist Chris Staley

Chris Staley has lived primarily in the eastern United States his entire life. His undergraduate studies in art were at Wittenberg University, Springfield, Ohio, where he received a BFA in 1977. After graduation, he spent a year as a Special Student at the Kansas City Art Institute and the following year entered the graduate program at the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University, Alfred, New York, where he received an MFA. Staley has had a distinguished teaching career, beginning with Rhode Island School of Design, Wichita State University and presently at Pennsylvania State University, where he is Professor of Art and Professor-in-Charge of the ceramics area in the School of Visual Arts. He is also active in the community, serving on the boards of both the Archie Bray Foundation and the Haystack Mountain School of Crafts. Staley's artist statement reads, “The essence of making pots for me is about being human. It’s about fragility and strength. It’s about the intimate moment when the handle of a cup touches the hand. Pots are about potential. Pots can create a world of slow-time where meaning can be found. It is a notable experience to use pots that exude the soul of the maker. All of our senses are engaged in this experience. Very few things can be touched and leave one a different person. It is the paradox of who is touching whom that gives pots their greatest potential.”