Sangria Set
Eric Ordway
Stoneware with flashing slip
Art Dimensions: 12.5" x 13" x 8"
Exhibition - Iowa Clay Conference | River 2 River
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Artist Statement
I explore the joy of inheriting the legacy of a 150-year-old heritage family farm and historical Scandinavian folk traditions. My forms echo the rich practice of working the land: soft-formed, curving clay walls reminiscent of rolling hills, carved ridges like plow-scraped fields, meet gentle, undulating wave-like rims. Working with my body is a sacred experience. Using a kick wheel is an intuitive, mediative encounter. My feet propel the wheel, capturing the slow, rhythmic movement of my legs juxtaposed by the sharp vertical textures in the form. As I labor with my hands in the clay, I contemplate my ancestors toiling with their hands in the earth, wood, stone, and bone. Researching Scandinavian decorative folk traditions from the 1700’s and historical objects from the Viking-age, I reconnect with my heritage apart from the stories told by a tight-knit family steeped in tradition, dogma, and expectations of conformity. My work unites the farmer and the academic at a common table, evoking a timeless truth: the glorious can be found in the mundane, and the divine in the common.
Artist Biography
Eric Ordway was born and raised near Columbia, MO. He was first exposed to pottery while attending school at Moberly Area Community College in 2006. Eric continued to study clay at Colorado State University-Pueblo, graduating with his BFA in 2013. In 2015, Eric was awarded a residency at the Morean Center for Clay in St. Petersburg, FL. During this time, Eric also taught ceramics to students at Berkeley Preparatory School, where he discovered his passion for teaching. Eric earned his MFA from the University of Missouri in 2019, and after graduating, Eric taught ceramics at Truman State University for three years. During this time, he also worked at Access Arts, a local nonprofit in Columbia, MO, as the Department Head of Ceramics. Some of his most recent accomplishments includes being selected as a 2023 Ceramics Monthly Emerging Artist and exhibiting his work at the 2023 & 2024 NCECA Annual Exhibitions, and 2024 International Ceramics Competition in Carouge, Switzerland. Eric exhibits his work at the national and international levels. He currently works at University of Missouri’s School of Visual Studies as the Fine Arts Technician & Adjunct Professor and lives in Columbia, MO with his wife, Chelsea, and their dog, Lily.
