Randy Reeves

BFA 1975 Kansas City Art Institute

MFA 1985 University of Minnesota-Minneapolis

When not painting or drawing I am working with my favorite medium; clay. This body of work explores form, texture, color and utility. Serving ware and retro shapes interest me currently. My work is hand built, mold formed, and wheel thrown. The low firing temperature of earthenware offers endless combinations of color. I use clay slip colored with Mason stain to achieve the bright and playful results.

My career as artist began at birth. During my childhood I always got into trouble for drawing on walls and messing around with my dad’s air conditioner caulk. This was a pliable oil clay that I sculpted into animal forms and used them to fight my toy soldiers.

Eventually, I enrolled in art school (Kansas City Art Institute) where my creative needs were trained and unleashed. Here is where I discovered ceramics.

Working in all methods; stoneware, earthenware, high firing, low temp. firing, such as Raku. Low temperature firing became my favorite, as I was interested in strong color and drawing.

During the mid 1970’s I found myself in the LaCrosse area. I moved in with friends living in the countryside. The old farm house and open pasture was perfect for my first clay studio. I utilized raku and wood firing techniques and began showing my work at local craft fairs.

One evening, we were awoken by the sound of breaking glass and smell of the smoke filling the house. Our house caught fire. Burned to the ground in the middle of night we lost everything.

This is when I decided to move to Minneapolis to enter graduate school at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. I had the great fortune of working with great professors. Warren Mackenzie and Curtis Hoard.

After graduation I was financially stressed and living illegally in the typical artist warehouse studio/loft. It was not feasible to set up a clay studio, so, this is when I began drawing and painting. The timing was good, as corporations began collecting art and the general art market was cooking. My painting caught the eye of local buyers and I began to sell. My work is now in many corporate as well as private collections in the Minneapolis area. My work was represented in galleries, I had won several foundation grant awards, and several awesome commissions.

In 1992 I began working at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis. What an experience it was. I worked on the art crew. I installed exhibitions, learned conservation framing, and became the gallery lighting designer. It was a perfect job for an artist. I was surrounded by artworks and met and worked with artists from around the world; some famous.

In 2010 the museum downsized and I was cut loose. This is when I decided to move back to the LaCrosse area and settle down. LaCrosse is located in the Driftless area of the state. My home and studio is in Onalaska; nestled between the river and the bluffs. This is where I built my new studio. .