James Chaney, Professor

James Chaney, Professor

James Chaney, Professor of Ceramics, earned his B.A. in Philosophy from St. Fidelis College and M.F.A. in Ceramics from Kent State University. He has exhibited work in Mastery in Clay at the Clay Studio in Philadelphia, PA and Pennsylvania Craft at The State Museum in Harrisburg, PA. His current personal ceramic work, Sake Form Series, is fired for five days in a wood-fired Japanese-style tube kiln known as an Anagama and addresses the perennial themes of gesture, posture, irony, and humor, through the storytelling format of clay vessels, which resemble Japanese Sake bottles in size and proportion. Their hand-held scale and sensibility are central to both craft production and appreciation, particularly in the Ceramic medium. Empowered by the aesthetic and technical pioneers of the past, and acknowledging a multitude of contemporary influences, his intent in the present is to extend and expand the tradition of Ceramic Art through personal expression.