About the Artist

John Cunningham is a ceramic artist in the San Joaquin Valley of California. His mostly wheel-thrown work tends to emphasize classic forms, surface texture, and variegated glazes.

“Ceramics are born of primal elements– of earth, air, fire, and water. These things fascinate us. When combined in art, they connect to both deep and lofty places within us and have the power to entrance us.”
~John Cunningham

I became entranced with ceramic art–and particularly, wheel-thrown pottery– in college. I soon changed my major from history to fine art and earned a B.F.A. in ceramics.

My love of big ideas, however, came to the fore after a couple of master’s degrees and a Ph.D. (in the philosophy of beauty), I became a professor of humanities. Ceramics was relegated to an occasional hobby.

A couple of years ago, though, I was able to return to ceramics as my main gig and, as T.S. Elliot says,

“We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.”