Tom Spleth Artist Statement

On this ridge in the mountains where my home is, the wind is a beast that visits daily, but on this spring morning the air is warm and absolutely still, the sky flawless and pale blue, nearly white. The thousands of trees that I can see just beyond the greening lawn carry that magenta haze of new buds. Not a single leaf can be seen, but winter is only a memory today and the sun is hot. Above, at thirty thousand feet, a whispering jet lays down a fading contrail and then another crosses it. Here, the wasps have awakened and now single-mindedly seek the right location for the propagation of their species. I am reminded of my porcelain and why people like to pick it up. Its clear thin white body, filled with light, carries the same message I am receiving from the sky and the warmth of this day. There is an overwhelming feeling that a gift has been given.

I am drinking coffee from an earthenware cup made by a friend. The coffee is bitter and harsh, left over from yesterday and burned in the microwave this morning. The low-fat milk that whitens it is no substitute for creamy half-and-half, but the refrigerator is understocked. The coffee reminds me of my adulthood, my gray hair, my eventual demise, the relief I am feeling from my sorry addiction to caffeine. I welcome these thoughts because I am set apart thereby from the illusion that nature is benign. She would be just as happy if this setting were a blasted crater on the dark side of the moon.

The only pottery I make these days is porcelain cups filled with the gift of light and precision. On their sides, in tiny script, I place verbal messages, little reminders that make the cups complete: "god damn it," "cocksucker," "narrow minded son of a bitch". Only these exact words can carry their tiny sweet messages of heartbreak and awareness. No image or abstract mark can make such a declaration. Words float in our brains like DNA floats in our cells, and when a customer picks up one of my cups and reads, he or she is captured by the inescapable recognition that a fellow traveler has been here. This is the humanity of profanity. The words on the cups elicit a bit of uncontrolled laughter, a sigh of relief, and confirmation that we shall abide.

Tom Spleth Bio

Short Bio Born in Tulsa, Tom Spleth earned his BFA from the Kansas City Art Institute and his MFA from the College of Ceramics at Alfred University. Exhibitions include the Gregg Museum, North Carolina State University, the McColl Center, the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art, the Asheville Art Museum, and the North Carolina Museum of Art. Collections include Cameron Museum, Wilmington, NC; Illinois State University, Kohler Company, and the Rhode Island School of Design. Spleth has been awarded numerous public commissions through the North Carolina Arts Council, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the North Carolina Art in State Buildings Program. He currently lives in western North Carolina in the mountains where he has a studio.

Tom Spleth Resume

EDUCATION

State University of New York College of Ceramics at Alfred University, Alfred, New York, MFA 1971

Kansas City Art Institute, Kansas City, Missouri, BFA 1969

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS

EFA Gallery, New York, New York, 2006

Blue Spiral Gallery, Asheville, North Carolina 2006

Meredith College, Raleigh, North Carolina, 2005

East Carolina University, Greenville, North Carolina, Exhibition on the Occasion of the Penland School's 75th Anniversary, 2004

Upstairs Gallery, Tryon, North Carolina, Recent Work, 2004

Blue Spiral Gallery, Asheville, North Carolina, Functional Ceramics Invitational 2003

Asheville Art Museum, Asheville, North Carolina, Works on Paper, 2003

John Michael Kohler Arts Center, Sheboygan, Wisconsin, Arts/Industry Retrospective, 2003

Parkland College, Champaign, Illinois, Recent Work, 2003 McColl Center for Contemporary Art, Charlotte, North Carolina, What's New, 2002

Louisiana Tech University, Ruston, Louisiana, Recent Work, 2001

East Carolina University, Greenville, North Carolina, Three Painters, 2000

Hickory Museum of Art, Hickory, North Carolina, Carolina Contemporary, 2000

Bernhardt Furniture Company, Lenore, North Carolina, Highpoint Showroom Exhibition, 2000, 2001

South Eastern Center for Contemporary Art, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, Recent Work, 1997

Gerald Melberg Gallery, Charlotte, North Carolina, New Talent in Charlotte II, 1993 North

Carolina State University Visual Arts Center, North Carolina Clay, Raleigh, North Carolina, 1992

Penland Gallery, Penland, North Carolina, New Work, 1998

Blue Spiral Gallery, Asheville, North Carolina, Abstract Thinking, 1999

Blue Spiral Gallery, Asheville, North Carolina, Harvest Show, 1997

Cameron Museum, Wilmington, North Carolina, Sculpture and Computer Drawings, 1997

Joanne Rapp Gallery, Scottsdale, Arizona, 1996

State University of New York College of Ceramics at Alfred University, International Museum of Art, Alfred, New York, Faculty Retrospective, 1996

North Carolina State University Visual Arts Center, Raleigh, North Carolina, For God's Eyes, Exhibition of a Collaboration with Israeli Painter Moshe Gershuni, 1996

Blue Spiral Gallery, Asheville, North Carolina, New Works, New Artists, New Year, 1994

Greenhill Center for North Carolina Art, Greensboro, North Carolina, New Work, 1993

Raleigh Contemporary Gallery, Raleigh, North Carolina, New Work, 1991, 1992

Waterworks Gallery, Salisbury, North Carolina, Brickworks Project Exhibition, 1989

North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, North Carolina, Big Clay, 1988

Creative Arts Workshop, New Haven, Connecticut, The Form of Function, 1988

Artspace Gallery, Raleigh, North Carolina, Environmental Tile Installation, 1987

Greenhill Center for North Carolina Art, Greensboro, North Carolina, Drawing Redefined, 1987

John Michael Kohler Arts Center, Sheboygan, Wisconsin, Clay, Everyday plus Sunday, 1985

State University of New York College of Ceramics at Alfred University, Fosdick/Nelson Gallery, Recent Work, 1984

Greenwich House Gallery, New York, New York, New Work, 1983

Synopsis Gallery, Winnetka, Illinois, Contemporary Porcelain Show, 1982

American Hand Gallery, Washington, DC, New Work, 1982

American Hand Gallery, Washington, DC, The Bowl Show, 1982

American Craft Museum, New York, New York, For the Table Top, 1981

Museum of the Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, Rhode Island, Clay, 1981

Renwick Gallery, National Museum of Art, Smithsonian Institute, Washington, DC, American Porcelain, 1981

Elements Gallery, New York, New York, New Work, 1981

Moore College of Art, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Robert L. Pfannebecker Collection, 1980

Center for the Visual Arts, Illinois State University, Normal Illinois, Eighth Biennial Crafts Invitational, 1980

Museum of the City of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Contemporary Ceramics: A Response to the Josiah Wedgwood Commemoration, 1980

Helen Drutt Gallery, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, American Ceramics, 1980

State University of New York, Burchfield Center, Buffalo, New York, Language of Clay: Ten New York Artists, 1979

Weber State College, Logan, Utah, Ceramics Invitational, 1978

Following Sea Gallery, Honolulu, Hawaii, Five Craftsmen, 1978

Scripts College, Claremont California, Scripts Invitational, 1971