Former MHCC instructor shows stoneware

Don Sprague.  Photo by Chuck Masi.

Earthenware is pottery made from clay fired in a kiln to become nonporous and durable. While we could just call it pottery, or ceramics, the word “earthenware” seems to hold a certain imagery to it.

Looking at Don Sprague’s work displayed in the Visual Arts Gallery, the word just feels right: They may be formed, decorated and glazed by hand, but his work is unequivocally from the Earth.

Sprague is the third former Mt. Hood art instructor to return to the Gallery to display their work this month. Against a backdrop of paintings and mixed-media pieces, his earthenware is three-dimensional, drawing the eye with tiered displays of three and five.

Considering where he started, it might be weird to imagine ceramics being where he ended. In the mid-1960s, Sprague graduated with an degree in architectural studies. While his studies required minimal art, such as drawing and illustration, he says now he was always more form-oriented, rather than “painterly.”

In fact, his journey into ceramics was an accident. “I failed a class that was sequential and it caused me to go an extra year,” he said. “I had plenty of time to take electives, and ceramics was it.”

A happy accident, indeed.

At that time, Sprague said he was looking for an alternative path. When he found ceramics, the process from idea to creation to finished product was what he fell in love with, he said. “It’s just being involved in process. I don’t want to say I’m not interested in the outcome, but I’m enjoying what is happening.”

What is happening is a long, attentive process of great artisanship. Fired in wood kilns, Sprague’s earthenware can be heated as long as five days, during which it requires his constant attention. Recently, he has been exploring larger jugs and vases, influenced by his favorite work featured in the Visual Arts Gallery, “Jar.”

His work certainly stands out against the white walls of the Gallery – and is available to any MHCC student, staff or community member who wishes to appreciate it.
The current exhibit, “Spotlight on Three Artists, runs in the Visual Arts Gallery – open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays – through March 17.

Advocate Staff