Eric
Ordway
Born in Missouri and raised with hands in the clay-dirt of the fields near his home, Eric Ordway continues to relate his ceramic work to the environment that surrounds him. While his sculptural vessels relate closely to smaller functional work in his oeuvre, he sees the features of these forms as echoes of the Missouri landscape: soft-formed, curving vessel walls are gentle, rolling hills; carved ridges are plow-scraped rows, evidence of human cultivation and force; openness of form draws the eye up to the horizon line at the organic top-edge of the vessel. Even the colors and surface effects, achieved through Ordway’s mastery of an unpredictable firing and glazing process, remind his viewer of the familiar red clay of the ground and deep-hued, bespeckled or storm-laden sky.
