Yoshiro Ikeda

• In an interview in 2001, Yoshiro Ikeda discussed his sources of inspiration: “One pot was influenced by the cactus of Arizona. A week ago, I started a new series about forests and mountains.” • In a statement for his 2010 exhibition at the Marianna Kistler Beach Museum of Art, Ikeda wrote: “My works have reflected the organic aspects of nature, the everchanging weather, and the art of dancing.” • He received his BS in painting and drawing from Portland State University, but he studied with ceramics professor Ray Grimm as well. He earned an MFA in ceramics from University of California, Santa Barbara.
• With the support of a scholarship from Japan’s Ministry of Education, Ikeda studied at Kyoto City University of Fine Arts under master potters Kondo Yutaka and Yagi Kazuo from 1970 to 1973. Yagi was the founder of the Sodeisha group of avant-garde ceramic artists, who produced ceramics that functioned solely as sculptures, without the utilitarian purpose traditionally expected of that medium. • Ikeda moved from California to Kansas in 1978 for a job as assistant professor at Kansas State University. He became the head of ceramics in 1981 and earned the title of Distinguished Professor in 2004. In 2010, he received an award for excellence in teaching from the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts (NCECA). By the time Ikeda retired in 2012, he had been a mentor to dozens of graduate students, many of whom are now professors in colleges and universities around the country. • Ikeda wrote about his art: “I am involved with the languages of thrown forms. My purpose is to articulate through the tensions, relaxations and rhythms of my work, what I know of the felt life. So much of living or what might be called process in its wildest sense seems to have become separated from the things we make. I like to think that the potter has a special opportunity to establish a life style which runs more closely parallel to the craft of being human.” •Photo by David Mayes, photo services, Division of Communications and Marketing, Kansas State University