Dan Goddard
Clarkston, Washington

Email
judahsgate@gmail.com

Artist Statement
ART IS A BRIDGING LANGUAGE that knows no race, no gender, no social economics, no culture, no people group separate from another. Art bridges us and binds us all, in some way. We either appreciate some form of art or we create art.

Studio Description
My studio is also The School of Pottery. It is a community arts outreach center. It is our intention to give back to the community in a way to support, educate, and nurture the creativity of both young and old alike. We give back through art.

What type of clay do you use?
Primarily cone 6 white-bodied clay for wheel and sculpture work.

What temperature do you fire to?
Primarily cone 6

What is your primary forming method?
Wheel, handbuilding, and sculpting utilizing wheels, slab rollers, and extruders

What is your favorite surface treatment?
Sgraffito, even though most of my marketed work is wheel thrown and sculpted onto sgraffito.

Do you make any of your own tools?
I do make some tools for my own use. Mostly chattering, trimming, molding, and jigging tools. I do also make some kiln furniture, and trimming assistant pieces.

What one word would you use to describe your work?
Laid back

What is your favorite thing about your studio?
Giving away arts in education and arts in therapy

What is the one thing in your studio you can’t live without?
The squirrels in the attic

What are your top three studio wishes?
A good pugmill, a large mill/extruder, a walk-in or shuttle gas kiln or two.

What’s on your current reading list?
Majolica Mania: Transatlantic Pottery in England and the United States

How do you save money on materials and supplies?
The School of Pottery is a community outreach of a nonprofit. I am/we are funded through donation.

How do you recharge creatively?
Through teaching and learning from my students

Do you have any DIY tips for studio efficiency?
Recycle everything. You never know what you can create.

What challenges have you given yourself to overcome?
I have moved so much with the outreach centers I am no focusing more on my own work and marketing my own work.

What did your first piece look like?
That would be in 1966 and a grade schooler's coil pot. So mostly it looked like a clay blob.

What ceramic superpower would you have and why?
Perfect, even fire. Because I could get exactly the effect and finish I desire every time.

Who is your ceramic art mentor and why?
David Shaner, I had the opportunity to sit under his tutelage as a child for a brief moment.

What is on your studio playlist?
Bethel Music, and throw in the morning, trim in the afternoon

Why do you create art?
Part of my mantra: "Art bridges us and binds us all, in some way. We either appreciate some form of art or we create art.”

What is your best studio tip?
Never stop throwing mud. If you do, nothing will ever stick.

If you could change one property of clay, what would it be?
It has memory, now if it could just speak. Maybe it does.