Common Objectives: Josh Scott MFA Thesis Show at Utah State University (2021)

Earlier this year, grad students Josh Scott, Ayla Murray and Matt Sloan completed their MFAs here at Utah State University. They all put on fabulous shows and I felt compelled to document them. Over the next few days, I will be posting about each one.

First up is Josh Scott and his show, “Common Objective.” Josh Scott’s pottery is some fine stuff. Hope you enjoy the pictures, but before we get to that, here’s the context for the exhibition…

IMG_3118.jpg

Hailing from Florida, and back living there now, Josh Scott makes fabulous wood-fired pots. He has a lovely touch with clay, leaving just enough marks from the making process to keep the pots feeling fresh.

I’ve had the pleasure of helping Josh fire over the past year and saw most of these pots come out of the kiln. There is a big difference in seeing the pots fresh from the kiln and then all set up in the gallery. A lot of sanding and cleaning goes on before they make it to the pedestal.

Josh is a meticulous maker as well as cleaner of pots. It was wonderful to walk through the gallery see them all arranged. I’m happy to say that I snagged a couple for my own collection.

Here’s how the gallery looked from each end…

Now let’s get in to the pots. First up I want to show some of Josh’s teapots…

Here are a nice collection of wall-hung dishes…

Here is a larger pot that was fired right in the front of “Bob,” one of the train kilns here at USU. It has quite a spectacular surface…

Here’s close up pictures of some of the other pots in the show…

I saved some ewers for the end. These are some of Josh’s favorite pots to make and it shows! I have one in my kitchen full of soy sauce right now…

Check out his website here: https://www.joshscottpottery.com/