Errol Willett
Errol Willett is an Associate Professor of Art at Syracuse University’s College of Visual and Performing Arts. He served as Chair of the Art Department at Syracuse University from 2009-2012 and Coordinator of the Ceramics Program from 2006-2009. He received his MFA from Penn State University and BA from the University of Colorado/Boulder. His artwork has been exhibited at the Everson Museum of Art in Syracuse; The Chicago Cultural Center; The LA County Museum; the Clay Studio in Philadelphia; The Baltimore Clayworks Gallery; the Banff Centre for the Arts in Canada; and the Incheon World Ceramic Center in Korea. In 2002 he was the recipient of the Meredith Award for excellence in teaching at Syracuse University. Artist Residencies include the Anderson Ranch Art Center, Snowmass Village, CO; Watershed Center in Maine; Peters Valley Craft Center, Layton, NJ; Banff Center for the Arts, Banff, BC, Canada, and the Red Lodge Clay Center, Red Lodge, MT. He and his partner, Jennifer Gandee, own and operate the Gandee Gallery and studios in Fabius, NY.
Artist's StatementThe ceramic basket series started for me in 2010. They were initially inspired by a Chinese grain basket. The basket forms were an excuse to go back and try to understand some primal vessel forms. What I like about baskets is how the interior and exterior space are connected at the handle, and how their structure is also their ornament. After copying a number of historic baskets that helped me learn the form, and studying the basket collection at the Metropolitan Museum in NY, some new ideas evolved. The one with four handles is called the Spider Basket and the newest one was inspired by several wooden soup ladles. It said something to me about delivery and content, handle and bowl. The Spider basket is partially inspired by the granite millstones of the last century, once critical to the ceramic industry, now massive monuments to that generation’s sweat and ingenuity. |
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